A  SKETCH  of  The  Munro  Clan,  also  of 
William  Munro  who>  deported  from  Scot- 
land,  settled  in  Lexington,  Massachusetts,  and  of 
Some  of  his  Posterity,  together  with  A  Letter  from 
Sarah  Munroe  to  Mary  Mason  descriptive  of  the 
Visit  of  President  Washington  to  Lexington  in  1 789 

By  JAMES  PHINNEY   MUNROE 


A    SKETCH    OF 

THE   MUNRO    CLAN 


OF   WILLIAM    MUNRO  WHO,  DEPORTED    FROM    SCOTLAND, 

SETTLED  IN  LEXINGTON,  MASSACHUSETTS,  AND 

OF   SOME    OF    HIS    POSTERITY 


TOGETHER    WITH 

A    LETTER    FROM 

SARAH   MUNROE  TO  MARY  MASON 

DESCRIPTIVE   OF  THE  VISIT  OF   PRESIDENT  WASHINGTON 
TO    LEXINGTON    IN    1789 

BY 

JAMES    PHINNEY   MUNROE 


BOSTON 

GEORGE  H.  ELLIS,   272  CONGRESS  STREET 
1900 


A  SKETCH  OF  THE  MUNRO  CLAN 


PREFACE. 

In  1898  was  published  in  Inverness,  Scotland,  a  "History  of 
the  Munros,"  by  Alexander  Mackenzie,  M.J.I.,  a  gentleman 
distinguished  not  only  for  his  elaborate  histories  and  genealogies 
of  no  less  than  eight  of  the  leading  Scottish  clans  and  for  his  other 
historical  writings,  but  also  for  his  splendid  work  before  Parlia- 
ment and  before  certain  of  its  commissions  on  behalf  of  the  crofters 
of  Scotland.  Largely  through  his  exertions  was  passed  the 
Crofters'  Act,  giving  security  of  tenure  and  compensation  for 
improvements  to  a  class  of  small  tenantry  whose  sufferings  and 
disabilities  bad  been,  if  possible,  worse  than  those  of  the  tenantry 
of  Ireland  in  their  darkest  days. 

Learning  that  this  "History  of  the  Munros  "  was  in  prepara- 
tion, I  entered  into  correspondence  with  Mr.  Mackenzie,  and  was 
so  far  fortunate  as  to  induce  him  to  include  in  his  genealogy  as 
many  of  the  American  branches  of  the  Munro  Clan  as  the  limited 
time  before  publication  would  permit  us  to  follow  up.  His  un- 
timely death  on  the  22d  of  'January,  1898,  and  the  long  illness 
preceding  his  lamented  decease,  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  realize 
this  plan  farther  than  I,  with  little  time  and  still  less  experience 
in  matters  genealogical,  had  been  able  under  his  direction  to  carry 
it.  Therefore  it  is  that  the  only  American  branch  of  the  clan  to 
appear  in  Mr.  Mackenzie's  History  is  that  of  William  Munro, 
the  first  settler  of  the  name  in  Lexington,  Massachusetts. 

As,  however,  this  bare  and  imperfect  chronicle,  confined  almost 
exclusively  to  the  direct  male  line  of  a  single  branch,  covers  more 
than  fifty  large  octavo  pages,  it  is  plain  that  a  thorough  geneal- 


ogy  —  even  of  those  branches  whose  history  it  might  have  been 
possible  to  ascertain  —  would  have  been  a  stupendous  task,  with 
results  greatly  exceeding  the  necessary  limits  of  Mr.  Mackenzie's 
volume. 

So  far  as  Scotland  is  concerned,  this  of  Mackenzie's  is  probably 
the  final  history  of  the  Munro  Clan.  With  a  strange  fatality,  it 
cost  the  lives  of  three  distinguished  men  who  successively  had  under- 
taken it;  and,  while  later  researches  may  bring  to  light  much 
additional  detail  of  the  complicated  story  of  this  great  clan,  a  work 
so  heavy  in  labor  and  so  light  in  pecuniary  reward  is  not  likely  — 
at  least,  within  several  generations  —  again  to  be  undertaken. 

In  America,  however,  the  field  is  practically  new ;  and  the 
results  of  genealogical  inquiry  would  be,  as  has  been  abundantly 
shown  by  my  own  limited  researches,  rich  in  interest  and  in  honor. 
It  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped,  therefore,  that  some  leisured  member  of 
the  clan,  with  a  taste  for  historical  research,  will  do  for  the 
American  branches  of  the  family  of  Munro  what  Mr.  Mackenzie 
has  accomplished  in  so  satisfactory  a  way  for  the  roots  and  trunk. 

Meanwhile,  hoping  to  stimulate  interest  in  the  family  history, 
and  believing  that  this  can  be  done  more  quickly  and  fully  by  a 
little  volume  published  in  the  United  States  than  by  a  large  one 
issued  in  Scotland,  I  offer  this  quite  informal  abstract  of  Mr. 
Mackenzie's  six  hundred  pages,  presenting  it  not  in  any  way  as  a 
substitute,  but  simply  as  a  foretaste  of  his  History,  scarcely  a 
page  of  which  but  breathes  such  valor  and  romance  as  wholly  to 
overshadow  the  imaginings  of  the  industrious  historical-  novel 
mongers  of  the  day. 

I  gladly  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  to  express  my  profound 
obligation  to  the  many  Munros,  Munroes,  Monros,  and  Monroes 
who  so  cordially  helped  me  to  assist  Mr.  Mackenzie,  and  espe- 
cially to  put  on  record  my  indebtedness  to  the  late  "John  Goodwin 


Locke  and  the  late  Hon.  Charles  Hudson,  but  for  whose  patient 
and  difficult  researches — embodied  in  the  "Book  of  the  Lockes" 
and  in  the  "History  of  Lexington,  Mass." — ;'/  would  have  been 
impossible  to  trace  without  incredible  labor  the  numerous  and  wide- 
wending  descendants  of  the  thirteen  children  of  old  William 
Munro,  that  virile  Scotchman  who,  banished  for  fighting  for  the 
king  in  England,  engendered  a  huge  posterity  to  fight  against  the 
king  in  America. 


THE    CLAN    MUNRO. 

THE  origin  of  the  Clan  Munro  is  lost  in 
that  legendary  obscurity  which  is  the 
sure  proof  of  real  antiquity.  One  may 
take  his  choice  of  many  fables,  every  one  of 
them  solemnly  attested  by  high  antiquarian  au- 
thority. If  a  Munro  wishes  to  feel  very  old 
indeed,  he  may  accept  the  statement  of  Sir 
Robert  Douglas,  who  declares  that  the  family 
—  one  of  the  most  ancient  in  Scotland — was 
driven  over  to  Ireland  by  the  Romans  in  357, 
and  that  only  after  sojourning  there  for  seven 
hundred  years  did  it  return  to  its  original  High- 
land home.  If  one  demurs  at  this  Irish  resi- 
dence and  admixture,  he  may  subscribe  to  the 
statements  of  Skene  and  Smibert,  proving  the 
purely  Gaelic  origin  of  the  clan,  and  showing 
that  it  was  driven  down  into  the  southern 
Highlands  from  the  rocky  islands  of  the  north. 
Out  of  the  mass  of  conflicting  testimony  only 
one  fact  emerges :  that  the  founder  of  the 
family  —  that  is,  the  first  Munro  who  held 


10 


land' — was  a  certain  Donald.  Whether  his 
surname  was  or  was  not  O'Cain,  and  whether 
he  was  or  was  not  the  son  of  an  Irish  king, 
O'Cathan,  Prince  of  Fermanagh,  we  may  never 
know.  This  Donald,  tradition  says,  received 
at  the  hands  of  Malcolm  II.,  for  aid  given  to 
that  king  against  the  Danes,  the  land  on  Alness 
Water  called  Ferindonald  (or  Donald's  land), 
subsequently  erected  into  the  Barony  of  Fowlis, 
and  still  in  the  possession  of  the  family.  Since 
Malcolm  II.  died  in  1034,  the  family  origin  is 
more  ancient  than — and,  it  is  safe  to  add,  quite 
as  authentic  as  —  that  of  the  numerous  persons 
whose  alleged  progenitors  came  over  with 
William  the  Conqueror. 

This  Donald  O'Cain,  alias  Munro,  died  about 
1053,  and  was  succeeded,  tradition  says,  by  his 
son  George,  who  helped  Malcolm  III.,  son  of 
King  Duncan,  to  wrest  the  Scottish  throne 
from  that  usurper,  Macbeth,  whom  Shakspere 
has  made  immortal.  This  George  died  just  at 
the  opening  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  son  Hugh,  created  first  Baron 
of  Fowlis.  From  him  the  title  and  estates 
came  down  in  uninterrupted  lineal  male  descent 


II 


for  nearly  eight  hundred  years, —  a  fact,  says 
Mackenzie,  "  that  is  believed  to  be  unexampled 
in  the  annals  of  Scotland  and  England,  and  only 
paralleled  in  the  succession  of  the  Lords  King- 
sale,  premier  Barons  of  Ireland." 

The  second  Baron  of  Fowlis,  the  fourth  of 
the  Munro  line,  was  Robert.  His  chief  claim 
to  distinction  seems  to  have  been  that  he  was 
the  first  to  be  laid  in  the  chanonry  of  Ross, 
which  was  the  family  burial-place  for  four 
centuries  thereafter,  until  in  the  times  of  the 
Covenanters  the  violent  Presbyterianism  of  the 
lairds  impelled  them  to  seek  a  spot  untainted 
by  papacy  in  which  to  lay  their  bones.  The 
fifth  Munro  and  third  Baron  Fowlis  was  Don- 
ald, who  built  the  old  Tower  of  Fowlis,  which 
may  or  may  not  be  standing  to  this  day.  This 
Donald  Munro  is  said  materially  to  have  aided 
William  the  Lion,  the  first  Scotch  king  really 
to  establish  sovereignty  over  the  Highlands,  in 
suppressing  the  hitherto  unchecked  lawlessness 
of  those  northern  regions. 

The  sixth  Munro,  fourth  Baron  Fowlis,  was 
Robert,  who  married  a  daughter  of  the  Earl 
of  Sutherland,  and  by  her  had  a  son  George, 


12 


who  succeeded  in  1239  as  the  fifth  Baron 
Fowlis.  All  that  relates  to  the  first  six  genera- 
tions of  Munros  is  founded  only  upon  tradition, 
—  strong  tradition,  it  is  true,  but  unsupported 
by  documentary  proof.  From  the  accession  of 
George  Munro,  however,  in  1239,  the  record 
of  the  clan  rests  upon  indisputable  written  evi- 
dence. Therefore,  the  family  history  is  abso- 
lutely authentic  and  undisputed  from  a  date 
only  fourteen  years  later  than  the  signing  of 
Magna  Cbarta. 

The  first  really  attested  Munro,  George,  had 
all  the  family  lands  confirmed  to  him  by  a 
special  charter  from  Alexander  II.  before  1249; 
and  this  charter  states  that  the  lands  were  held 
of  old  by  his  ancestor,  Donald. 

George  Munro  died  about  1269,  and  was 
succeeded  by  Robert,  sixth  Baron  Fowlis.  Dur- 
ing his  life  began  the  bloody  and  ever-famous 
civil  wars  over  the  succession  to  the  Scottish 
throne.  Through  them  all  Robert  Munro 
remained  steadfast  to  the  party  of  Bruce,  which 
represented,  of  course,  Scotch  independence ; 
and,  although  an  old  man,  he  fought  with  his 
clan  at  the  decisive  battle  of  Bannockburn. 


There,  moreover,  his  only  son  was  killed ;  and 
eight  years  later,  the  old  Robert  being  dead, 
the  succession  fell  to  his  grandson  George, 
seventh  Baron  Fowlis.  George,  like  his  grand- 
father, fought  with  Bruce,  and  took  part  in  the 
battle  of  Halidon  Hill  against  the  combined 
forces  of  Baliol  and  Edward  III., —  a  battle 
where  were  killed  at  least  fourteen  thousand 
Scots  and  where  this  seventh  baron  fell  at  the 
head  of  his  clan.  He  had  married  a  daughter 
of  the  Earl  of  Ross,  and  left  as  his  successor  a 
mere  child,  Robert,  eighth  Baron  Fowlis. 

Upon  arriving  at  man's  estate,  this  Robert 
seems  to  have  developed  a  disposition  less  war- 
like than  that  of  his  immediate  ancestors,  and 
successfully  to  have  set  to  himself  the  task  of 
increasing  the  family  estates.  He  acquired 
much  new  land,  the  mere  naming  of  which  is 
quite  beyond  any  American's  powers  of  pronun- 
ciation,1 and  had  all  these  and  his  earlier 
estates  confirmed  by  repeated  royal  manifestoes. 
He  was,  furthermore,  one  of  the  Baron-Bailies 
of  the  Earldom  of  Ross,  a  very  important  office 
in  feudal  times. 

Robert,  having  been  killed  in  a  clan  fight  in 


1369,  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Hugh,  who 
acquired  more  lands,  mainly  at  the  hands  of  his 
cousin,  the  Countess  Euphemia  of  Ross, —  of 
whom  more  will  be  heard  later, —  and  who 
fought  under  Donald,  Lord  of  the  Isles,  against 
the  Duke  of  Albany  in  their  contest  for  the 
Earldom  of  Ross.  By  his  first  wife,  Isabella, 
grand-daughter  of  Sir  Edward  Keith,  Great- 
mareschal  of  Scotland,  Hugh  had  a  son,  George, 
who  succeeded  him  in  1425  as  the  tenth  Baron 
Fowlis ;  and  it  is  from  this  tenth  baron  that 
the  Munroes  (some  spelling  the  name  "  Munro," 
others  "Monro,"  and  still  others  "Monroe") 
of  Lexington,  of  Concord,  of  Woburn,  of 
Worcester,  of  New  York,  of  Pennsylvania, 
of  Bristol,  R.I.,  of  Ohio,  of  Paris,  France,  and 
of  hundreds  of  other  places  —  a  great  host  of 
men  and  women  —  are  descended  in  direct 
succession. 

In  the  lifetime  of  this  George  Munro,  in  the 
year  1452,  took  place  that  locally  famous  battle 
between  the  Mackenzies  and  the  Munros  which 
is  known  as  Beallach-nam-Brog,  or  the  Pass 
of  the  Shoes,  so  named  because  the  combatants, 
to  protect  themselves  from  one  another's  ar- 


rows,  took  off  their  shoes  and  tied  them  on  as 
breastplates.  The  origin  of  this  fight  is  as 
romantic  as  one  could  wish.  It  seems  that  the 
now  venerable  Euphemia,  Countess  Dowager 
of  Ross,  who  had  given  much  land  to  Baron 
George's  father,  fell  .deeply  in  love  with  Alex- 
ander Mackenzie,  Lord  of  Kintail,  "  a  proper 
handsome  young  man,"  and  told  him  so.  He 
being  already  plighted  to  Macdougall'e  daugh- 
ter, and  —  what  was  of  more  consequence  — 
the  countess  being  not  only  a  mere  life-tenant 
of  her  estates,  but  also  a  "  turbulent  woman," 
the  "proper  handsome"  young  Mackenzie  very 
properly  and  firmly  refused  her.  Thereupon 
she  invited  him  to  her  castle  at  Dingwall,  and, 
upon  his  •  again  declining  to  marry  her,  cast 
him  into  prison.  This  turbulent  old  vixen 
then  tortured  the  young  man's  page  until  he 
gave  up  to  her  the  ring  which  was  the  agreed 
token  to  be  sent  by  Mackenzie  to  his  vassal, 
Macauley,  governor  of  Ellandonnan,  permitting 
the  latter  to  leave  that  stronghold.  The  old 
countess  then  sent  one  of  her  gentlemen,  armed 
with  this  ring,  to  Macauley  with  a  message  to 
the  effect  that  his  master  was  about  to  wed  her, 


i6 

and  that  the  stronghold  of  Ellandonnan  was  to 
be  given  into  her  hands.  The  Macauley,  see- 
ing the  ring,  obeyed  the  supposed  order,  but 
soon  found  that,  instead  of  being  a  bridegroom, 
his  master  was  a  prisoner.  Thereupon  he 
loitered  under  the  dungeon  window  until  the 
"proper  handsome"  young  man  found  oppor- 
tunity to  make  signs  that  the  only  way  of 
effecting  his  release  would  be  to  kidnap  the 
countess's  cousin,  Walter  Ross,  and  hold  him 
as  a  hostage.  This  the  rest  of  the  Mackenzie 
family,  only  too  ready  for  a  fight,  promptly 
did,  and  hurried  the  luckless  cousin  off  into 
the  mountains  beyond  Inverness.  The  Earl 
of  Ross,  dutiful  son  to  the  amorous  countess, 
immediately  sent  word  to  Lord  Lovat,  the 
king's  lieutenant  in  the  Highlands,  of  this 
capture  of  his  cousin  ;  and  his  lordship  there- 
upon despatched  two  hundred  men  to  the  res- 
cue. They  were  joined  by  all  the  Ross  vassals, 
including  the  Munros  ;  and  the  pursuit  of  the 
Mackenzies  with  their  prisoner,  Walter  Ross, 
began.  Overtaken  at  Beallach-nam-Brog,  there 
ensued  one  of  the  bloodiest  battles  of  this  sav- 
age Scotch  history,  the  Munros  and  Macken- 


17 

zies  gladly  seizing  this  opportunity  to  pay  off 
many  an  ancient  score.  The  sub-clan  of  Ding- 
wall  was  literally  extinguished,  one  hundred 
and  forty  of  its  men  being  killed ;  and,  accord- 
ing to  Sir  Robert  Gordon,  "  there  were  slain 
eleven  Munroes  of  the  house  of  Fowlis  that 
were  to  succeed  one  after  another,  so  that  the 
succession  fell  into  a  child  then  lying  in  his 
cradle."  In  this  child,  who  became  John, 
eleventh  Baron  Fowlis,  the  American  Munros 
have  no  direct  interest ;  for  he  was  the  progen- 
itor of  the  present  Scottish  barons,  while  the 
American  branch  is  descended  from  his  next 
younger  brother,  Hugh.  This  Hugh  Munro, 
who  must  have  been  born  before  1450,  was  the 
founder  of  the  cadet  family  of  Coul,  near  Al- 
ness,  and  was  the  third  son  of  George  Munro, 
tenth  Baron  Fowlis,  by  that  baron's  second 
wife,  Christian  MacCulloch.  This  Hugh  of 
Coul  was  thrice  married  and  had  eight  sons, 
the  eldest  of  them  being  John,  a  clergyman 
and  a  Master  of  Arts  of  the  University  of 
Aberdeen. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  here  that  during  the 
time  of  this  Reverend  John,  the  Munro  Clan, 


through  the  extinction  of  the  feudal  rights  of 
the  Lords  of  the  Isles,  received  their  lands  — 
which  with  true  Scotch  thrift  they  were  con- 
tinually acquiring  —  direct  from  the  crown. 
Many  of  their  estates  they  held  on  the  sole 
condition  of  furnishing  the  Scottish  sovereign, 
when  demanded,  a  snow-ball  at  midsummer. 
This  fee  was  easily  paid,  since  the  snow  never 
melts  from  certain  caverns  in  the  so-called  Hill 
of  Fowlis,  in  the  forest  of  Wyvis ;  and  it  is 
related  that  after  the  battle  of  Culloden  the 
Munros  sent  to  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  as 
representing  the  king,  a  basket  of  snow  from 
this  Ben  Wyvis  with  which  to  cool  his  wine. 
Others  of  their  estates  were  held  on  the  yearly 
tender  of  a  pair  of  gloves. 

To  return  to  the  Reverend  John  Munro, 
second  representative  of  the  House  of  Coul. 
He  married — notwithstanding  the  battle  of  the 
Shoes  —  a  Mackenzie  lass ;  and  they  had  six  sons, 
the  eldest  of  whom,  John  Mor  Munro  (Mor 
meaning  great),  succeeded  to  the  estates.  John 
Mor  married  Elizabeth  Vass,  and  by  her  had 
several  sons.  The  fourth  boy  was  named 
Farquhar.  As  a  younger  son,  he  inherited  the 


'9 

lands  of  Aldie,  and  was  therefore  called  Farqu- 
har  of  Aldie.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son, 
Robert  of  Aldie,  who  was  also  Commissary  of 
Caithness,  and  who  got  himself  into  a  pretty 
row,  accompanied  by  much  Scotch  litigation 
and  some  murder,  with  the  Earl  of  Caithness. 
Now  this  Robert  of  Aldie,  Commissary  of 
Caithness,  married  we  know  not  whom,  and 
had  at  least  five  children, —  a  daughter,  Eliza- 
beth, who,  being  a  girl,  has  no  further  interest 
for  any  British  genealogist,  and  not  less  than 
four  sons:  Robert,  George,  William,  and 
Benedict.  These  boys  came  into  the  world 
between  1615  and  1630,  the  third,  William, 
being  born  in  1625.  They  were,  therefore,  in 
the  prime  of  young  manhood  at  the  time  of 
that  last  battle  fought  between  Cromwell  and 
the  Royalists,  the  battle  after  which  Charles 
hid  in  the  Royal  Oak,  the  battle  of  Worcester. 

"  The  battle  of  Worcester  [says  Carlyle]  was  fought 
on  the  evening  of  Wednesday,  jd  Sept.,  1651,  an- 
niversary of  that  at  Dunbar  last  year.  It  could  well 
have  but  one  issue, —  defeat  for  the  Scots  and  their 
Cause,  either  swift  and  complete  or  else  incomplete, 
ending  in  slow  sieges,  partial  revolts,  and  much  new 


2O 

misery  and  blood.  The  swift  issue  was  the  one 
appointed,  and  complete  enough,  severing  the  neck 
of  the  Controversy  now  at  last  with  one  effectual 
stroke.  No  need  to  strike  a  second  time. 

".  .  .  The  fighting  of  the  Scots  was  fierce  and  des- 
perate. My  lord  (Cromwell)  did  exceedingly  haz- 
ard himself,  riding  up  and  down  in  the  midst  of 
the  fire,  riding  himself  in  person  to  the  Enemy's  foot 
to  offer  them  quarter,  whereto  they  returned  no  an- 
swer but  shot !  The  small  Scotch  Army,  begirdled 
with  overpowering  force  and  cut  off  from  help  or 
reasonable  hope,  storms  forth  in  fiery  pulses,  horse 
and  foot ;  charges  now  on  this  side  of  the  river,  now 
on  that :  can  on  no  side  prevail.  Cromwell  recoils  a 
little,  but  only  to  rally  and  return  irresistible.  The 
small  Scotch  Army  is  on  every  side  driven  in  again. 
Its  fiery  pulsings  are  but  the  struggle  of  death, — 
agonies  as  of  a  lion  coiled  in  the  folds  of  a  boa. 

" '  As  stiff  a  contest  for  four  or  five  hours  as  ever 
I  have  seen,'  says  Cromwell.  But  it  avails  not. 
Through  Sudbury  Gate  on  Cromwell's  side,  through 
St.  John's  suburb,  and  over  Severn  Bridge  on  Fleet- 
wood's  the  Scots  are  driven  —  in  again  to  Worcester 
streets;  desperately  struggling  and  recoiling,  are 
driven  through  Worcester  streets  to  the  north  end 
of  the  city,  and  terminate  there, —  a  distracted  mass 
of  ruin ;  the  foot  all  killed  or  taken,  the  horse  all 
scattered  in  flight,  and  their  place  of  refuge  very  far. 


21 

His  sacred  Majesty  escaped  by  royal  oaks  and  other 
miraculous  appliances  well  known  to  mankind ;  but 
Fourteen  thousand  other  men,  sacred,  too,  after  a  sort, 
though  not  majesties,  did  not  escape.  One  could 
weep  at  such  a  death  for  brave  men  in  such  a  Cause." 

Fourteen  thousand  Scots  killed  at  this  battle 
of  Worcester  and  eight  thousand  taken  prisoner ! 
Other  thousands  —  we  know  not  how  many  — 
escaped  to  the  Continent,  many  of  them  settling 
there  permanently,  becoming,  in  time,  not 
Scotchmen,  but  Frenchmen,  Austrians,  Germans. 
We  know,  surely,  what  became  of  only  two 
of  the  four  sons  of  Robert  Munro  of  Aldie  who 
entered  this  disastrous  fight.  The  youngest, 
Benedict,  escaped  to  Germany,  and  became, 
eventually,  lord  of  one  of  those  petty  dukedoms 
which  infinitesimally  divided  the  old  Germany. 
He  grew  to  be  Baron  Benedict  von  Meikeldorf, 
and  to  this  day  his  descendants  hold  some  sort 
of  baronial  state  there.  The  third  son,  Will- 
iam, was  taken  prisoner  in  that  desperate  last 
stand  in  the  north  end  of  the  town;  and  two 
months  later  he  was  shipped  from  London  with 
a  great  company  of  other  Scotsmen,  as  a  politi- 
cal exile,  on  the  vessel  "  John  and  Sara,"  John 


22 


Green,  master,  consigned  to  Mr.  Tho :  Kemble, 
of  Boston.  There  were  four  "  Munrows  "  on 
this  vessel, —  Robert,  John,  Hugh,  and  another 
whose  Christian  name  is  obliterated,2  but  whom 
Mr.  Mackenzie,  studying  the  question  from  the 
records  on  the  other  side,  believes  —  as  Mr.  John 
G.  Locke,  the  careful  genealogist  of  the  Locke 
and  Munroe  families,  on  this  side,  believed  —  to 
be  William.  Whether  or  not,  however,  Will- 
iam came  on  the  "  John  and  Sara,"  it  is  certain 
that  William  Munro,  son  of  Robert  of  Aldie, 
born  in  1625,  was  taken  prisoner  at  the  battle 
of  Worcester  and  was  deported  to  America. 
As  the  first  William  of  Cambridge  Farms  was 
a  Scotchman,  was  born  in  1625,  and  was,  with- 
out any  doubt,  sent  over  as  a  political  prisoner, 
the  proof  identifying  the  two  men  as  one  and 
the  same  man  is  as  direct  —  short  of  William's 
own  word  —  as  one  could  ask.3 

Who  were  Robert,  John,  and  Hugh  "  Mun- 
ro w  "  it  is  not  our  present  business  to  inquire ; 
and,  unhappily,  Mr.  Mackenzie  did  not  live 
long  enough  to  ascertain.  But  it  would,  doubt- 
less, not  be  a  very  great  task  to  establish  their 
degree  of  cousinship  to  the  William  who  was 


the  direct  ancestor  of  all  the  Lexington  Mun- 
roes.  Counting  back,  William  is  in  the  eigh- 
teenth generation  in  direct  descent  from  that 
first  Donald  who,  in  the  eleventh  century, 
founded  the  Clan  Munro;  and,  as  most  living 
Munroes  are  only  in  the  fifth  or  sixth  genera- 
tion from  him,  it  is  clear  that  the  longest  roots 
of  the  family  are  still  in  Scotland. 

This  William  Munro,  coming  over,  as  a  sort 
of  honorable  convict,  in  his  twenty-seventh 
year,  had  doubtless  to  work  for  nothing  until 
such  time  as  he  had  earned  his  freedom.  That 
he  had  secured  at  least  an  individuality  in  1657 
is  probable  from  the  fact  that  he  (or  some  other 
William,  for  there  are  traditions  of  several)  was 
in  that  year  fined  for  not  ringing  his  swine.4 
That  it  was  an  uphill  task  to  secure  a  com- 
petency is  pretty  plainly  shown  by  the  fact  that 
he  remained  single  until  1665,  when  he  was 
forty  years  of  age.  He  then  married  Martha 
George,  daughter  to  John  George,  a  man  of 
Watertown  descent,  who  created  a  great  scandal 
in  Charlestown  by  his  Baptist  leanings.5  In- 
deed, he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  what  is 
now  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Boston,  and 


\ 


24 

for  this  and  other  heterodox  behavior  was  driven 
out  of  Charlestown. 

William  Munro  and  Martha  George  had  four 
children, —  John,  William,  George,  and  Martha. 
This  first  wife  died  about  seven  years  after 
marriage;  and  within  a  twelvemonth  William 
married  Mary  Ball,  a  name  made  famous  by  the 
mother  of  Washington.  By  Mary  he  had  nine 
more  children, —  Daniel,  David,  Joseph,  Benja- 
min, Hannah,  Elizabeth,  Mary,  Eleanor,  and 
Sarah.  This  second  wife,  Mary,  died  when 
William  was  sixty-seven;  and  he  married, 
thirdly,  Elizabeth  Johnson,  widow  of  Edward 
Wyer,  of  Charlestown,  a  lady  of  high  degree 
but,  apparently,  of  little  property.6  She  died 
in  1715;  and  old  William  followed  her,  two 
years  later,  in  his  ninety-second  year. 

All  but  two  of  William's  thirteen  children 
grew  to  manhood  and  womanhood,  and  every 
one  of  the  eleven  married  and  had  numerous 
children.  Little  wonder,  then,  that  the  de- 
scendants of  this  one  Munro  are  now  legion, 
and  are  scattered  over  the  entire  country.  It 
has  been  a  formidable  task  to  trace  even  the 
male  lines  to  the  slight  extent  that  I  have  car- 


25 

ried  them  beyond  the  point  where  Mr.  Hudson's 
admirable  genealogy  leaves  them,  and  the  search 
is  really  only  just  begun. 

Little,  however,  as  has  yet  been  learned, 
the  barest  record  of  the  lives  of  William 
Munro's  posterity  would  fill  an  immense  num- 
ber of  pages.  It  is  possible,  therefore,  to  deal 
only  with  the  six  sons  of  William,  and  to  men- 
tion a  few  of  their  descendants,  totally  ignoring 
the  many  fine  women  who,  by  marriage,  sur- 
rendered forever  the  name  of  Munro.  Further- 
more, no  attempt  will  be  made  even  to  mention 
the  Munros  who  fought  in  the  Revolutionary 
War.7  The  records  make  it  evident,  however, 
that,  whatever  the  clansmen  may  have  lost  in 
emigrating,  they  abated  not  one  whit  of  their 
Highland  pugnacity. 

William's  three  sons  by  his  first  wife,  Martha, 
were  John,  William,  and  George.  From  the 
eldest,  John,  was  descended  that  Marrett  whose 
house  still  stands  opposite  the  Lexington  Green. 
Marrett's  son,  Josiah,  was  a  close  friend  of  La- 
fayette, was  presented  by  him  with  a  sword, 
and  was  one  of  the  pioneers  who,  under  Gen-, 
eral  Rufus  Putnam,  settled  the  North-west 


26 

Territory.8  His  son,  Josiah  Fitch  Munro,  mar- 
ried a  sister  of  General  Lewis  Cass ;  and  their 
descendants  are  numerous  and  well  known  in 
and  around  Ohio.  Others  of  John's  descend- 
ants settled  in  Ashburnham,  establishing  the 
chair-making  industry  there,  and  reaching  hon- 
orable prominence  in  that  region,  in  Vermont, 
and  in  Eastern  New  York. 

From  William,  the  second  son  of  the  origi- 
nal William,  descended  Colonel  William,  or- 
derly sergeant  of  the  minute-men  at  the  battle 
of  Lexington  and  proprietor  of  the  Munroe 
.Tavern  ;  also  Edmund  Munroe,  founder  of  the 
INew  England  Glass  Company  and  one  of  the 
'three  founders  of  the  American  Board  of  Com- 
missioners for  Foreign  Missions.  Among  Ed- 
mund's descendants  are  (Charles)  Kirk  Munroe, 
the  story  writer,  and  Munroe  Smith  and  Henry 
Smith  Munroe,  professors  at  Columbia  Univer- 
sity. Other  descendants  are  the  Bowmans, 
once  so  prominent  in  Lexington,  and  later  con- 
spicuous in  public  life  in  Pennsylvania,9  and 
the  progeny  of  Dr.  Thomas  Monro,  of 
Concord,  who  settled  in  Bristol,  R.I.,10  and 
made  an  honorable  record  in  that  region  and 


27 

in  Pennsylvania.  Of  this  line  of  the  second 
William  also  are  Captain  Edmund  Munroe, 
who  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Monmouth 
after  a  most  distinguished  military  career ;  the 
Munroe  of  the  early  publishing  firm  of  Munroe 
&  Francis ;  Augustus  Munroe,  who  played  such 
a  noble  part  when  the  steamer  "  Atlantic  "  was 
wrecked  in  Long  Island  Sound  in  i  846  ;  n  and 
the  Munroes  of  the  well-known  banking-house 
of  Munroe  &  Co.  in  Paris.12 

From  George  Munro,  the  third  and  last  son 
of  William  and  Martha,  are  descended  the 
Munroes  who  still  live  in  that  part  of  Lexing- 
ton called  "Scotland,"  on  the  very  estate 
granted  to  the  original  William  ;  Ki  also  Tim- 
othy Munroe,  who  settled  in  Lynn,  and  whose 
grandson,  "  Colonel  Tim,"  led  the  first  troops 
from  Essex  County  to  the  Civil  War.  From 
George  are  descended  also  Ensign  Robert 
Munroe,  the  first  man  killed  at  the  battle  of 
Lexington  ;  Isaac,  for  many  years  editor  of  the 
Baltimore  Patriot;  many  distinguished  soldiers 
of  the  War  of  1812;  Philemon,  from  whom 
descended,  among  others,  Otis  Munroe,  the 
well-known  Boston  merchant,  and  Edmund 


28 

Munroe  Bacon,  for  a  number  of  years  editor 
of  the  Boston  Post;  Professor  Charles  E.  Mun- 
roe, dean  of  the  graduate  school  of  Columbian 
University  in  Washington,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  authorities  on  high  explosives  in 
America ;  old  Mrs.  Sanderson,  who  lived  to 
be  one  hundred  and  four  years  old  ;  and  James, 
of  the  publishing  firm  of  James  Munroe  &  Co. 

Of  the  four  sons  of  William  Munro  by  his 
second  wife,  Mary  Ball,  the  second,  David, 
probably  died  young.  From  the  eldest,  Daniel, 
were  descended  William,  the  first  and  for  many 
years  the  only  maker  of  lead-pencils  in  Amer- 
ica, and  his  son,  William,  who  presented  to 
Concord  its  public  library  building.  From 
Daniel  was  descended,  too,  Elbert  B.  Monroe, 
a  rich  jeweller  of  New  York,  who  made  to  the 
people  of  Southport,  Conn.,  a  similar  gift. 
James  Munroe,  the  chronometer-maker,  was 
also  of  this  line  of  Daniel  Munro. 

The  third  son  of  the  original  William  Munro 
by  his  second  wife  was  Joseph,  known  as  "  Cor- 
poral Joe,"  who,  although  born  in  1687,  took 
some  part  in  the  Revolution,  and  did  not  die 
until  1787,  in  his  hundredth  year.  His  de- 


29 

scendants  settled  in  Concord,  Carlisle,  central 
Massachusetts,  and  southern  New  Hampshire. 

Of  the  descendants  of  William's  youngest 
son,  Benjamin,  who  settled  in  what  is  now 
Lincoln,  less  has  been  learned  than  of  any  of 
the  other  branches. 

The  search  for  descendants  of  William  has 
discovered  Munros,  Munroes,  Monros,  and 
Monroes  in  every  corner  of  the  United  States, 
and  has  unearthed  many  extraordinary  legends 
of  the  origin  of  the  family  in  America.  Most 
of  these  stories  —  like  that  of  the  three  brothers, 
one  a  famous  physician,  who  came  over  and 
settled  on  Salisbury  Plain,  the  physician  being 
blessed  with  twelve  sons  —  are  undoubtedly 
variants  of  the  true  record ;  but  others  —  like 
that  of  the  William  who  settled  in  Boston,  who 
had  sixteen  children,  and  whose  descendants 
moved  down  into  the  south-eastern  part  of  the 
State  —  are  difficult  to  fathom,  for  the  records 
of  Boston  fail  to  disclose  any  such  person. 
Then,  too,  there  are  many  Munroes  who  trace 
back  to  Connecticut  ancestors  or  to  ancestors  in 
western  Massachusetts,  whom  the  most  careful 
searching  cannot  connect  with  any  one  of  the 


30 

Lexington  family,  although  they  all  possess,  as 
an  heirloom,  some  legend  of  Cambridge  Farms. 
There  are  certain  eminent  persons  in  Wash- 
ington and  in  Maryland  who  trace  back  to 
a  Thomas  Munroe,  son  of  Horatio,  and  who 
have  traditions  of  Lexington  descent;  but  the 
relationship  has  not  yet  been  established. 

President  Monroe,  it  seems  pretty  well  settled, 
was  descended  from  a  Major  Andrew  Munro 
who  emigrated  to  Virginia  some  years  earlier 
than  William  came  —  perforce  —  to  Boston.14 
As  this  Andrew  was  of  another  cadet  branch 
of  the  clan,  the  relationship  of  the  Lexington 
Munroes  to  the  fifth  President  is  somewhat 
remote,  although  far  back  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury they  did  have  a  common  ancestor,  George 
Munro,  tenth  Baron  Fowlis. 

Leaving  America,  let  us  return  to  Scotland 
to  that  line  of  Barons  Fowlis  whose  eleventh 
representative  was  left,  metaphorically,  lying  in 
the  cradle;  although,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he 
was  five  or  six  years  old  when  he  succeeded  to 
the  headship  of  the  Munros.  He  and  his  suc- 
cessors in  the  direct  line  of  the  barony  were, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  not  particularly  distin- 


guished  except  in  matters  of  fighting.  Their 
pugnacity  never  flagged,  and,  apparently,  was 
never  satisfied.  As  the  brawls  of  these  men 
and  their  neighbors  have  little  —  save  a  romantic 
or  antiquarian  —  interest,  it  is  worth  while  to 
mention  only  the  few  barons  of  the  clan  who 
really  did  something  to  merit  recording.  Robert 
Mor  Munro,  for  example,  the  fifteenth  baron, 
was  one  of  the  first  of  the  Highland  chiefs  to 
renounce  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  voting 
in  the  Parliament  of  August,  i  560,  for  the  over- 
throw of  the  Church.  The  first  spot,  it  is  said, 
in  the  Highlands  where  the  reformed  faith  was 
preached  was  at  a  hamlet  called  Waterloo,  be- 
tween Fowlis  and  Dingwall ;  and  the  minister 
was  Reverend  Donald  Munro,  of  Coul,  younger 
brother  of  John  Mor  Munro. 

This  canny  baron,  Robert  Mor,  doubtless 
found  his  spiritual  zeal  not  a  little  encouraged 
by  the  confiscated  lands  of  the  Church,  which 
fell  richly  to  his  share  and  largely  augmented 
the  Munro  estates.  A  curious  light  is  thrown 
upon  the  times  by  the  fact  that  this  Robert 
Mor's  second  wife  was  publicly  tried  for  witch- 
craft, being  accused  of  attempting  to  destroy 


her  stepson  both  by  philters  and  by  causing  elf- 
arrows  to  be  shot  into  an  image  of  him  made 
from  clay.  Although  acquitted,  she  was  plainly 
quite  as  guilty  as  her  wretched  accomplices,  of 
humbler  station,  who  were  ingeniously  tortured 
and  burned  at  the  stake.  Immediately  upon 
her  acquittal,  her  stepson,  in  turn,  was  put  on 
trial  for  "sorcery,  incantation,  witchcraft,"  etc., 
in  having  caused  a  deadly  sickness  in  his  half- 
brother;  but  he,  also,  was  acquitted. 

The  eighteenth  Baron  Fowlis,  known  as  the 
"Black  Baron,"  a  wild,  reckless,  and  generally 
disreputable  person,  so  encumbered  and  alienated 
his  estates  that  he  finally  had  no  choice  except 
to  seek  military  service  on  the  Continent.  With 
admirable  humility  he  enlisted  as  a  subaltern  in 
the  army  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  but  rapidly 
rose  and  highly  distinguished  himself,  particularly 
at  the  battle  of  Liitzen.  It  is  said,  in  this  con- 
nection, that  there  were  engaged  in  the  Con- 
tinental Wars  of  the  seventeenth  century,  mainly 
under  Gustavus  Adolphus,  no  less  than  three 
generals,  eight  colonels,  five  lieutenant  colonels, 
eleven  majors,  and  thirty  captains  of  the  name 
and  clan  of  Munro. 


33 

The  twenty-second  baron,  Sir  John  Munro, 
—  for  some  time  before  this  the  Barons  Fowlis 
had  been  elevated  into  baronets,15  —  was  famous 
both  for  his  steadfastness  during  the  troublous 
times  of  the  Restoration  and  for  his  huge  bulk, 
being  known  familiarly  as  the  "  Presbyterian 
mortar-piece." 

The  best  as  well  as  the  most  romantic  of 
the  Barons  Fowlis  was,  undoubtedly,  that 
twenty-fourth  one,  Sir  Robert,  of  whom  Dr. 
Doddridge,  in  his  Life  of  Colonel  Gardiner, 
writes  with  much  enthusiasm,  but  with  some 
inaccuracy.10  This  Sir  Robert  was  one  of  the 
six  clan  leaders  who  founded  the  famous  regi- 
ment, the  42d  Highlanders,  known  as  the 
"Black  Watch."  He  was  its  first  lieutenant 
colonel,  and,  the  colonel  being  incapacitated 
for  duty,  was  its  leader  during  that  second  con- 
test for  the  Austrian  Succession  which  is  known 
as  the  Second  Silesian  War. 

So  superb  was  the  morale  of  the  Black  Watch 
that  it  was  seemingly  invincible ;  and  the  Elec- 
tor Palatine,  writing  to  his  envoy  in  London, 
begged  him  to  thank  the  king  of  Great  Britain 
for  the  behavior  of  this  Highland  regiment,  its 


34 

prowess  being  due,  he  adds,  "  to  the  care  of  Sir 
Robert  Munro,  their  colonel,  for  whose  sake  I 
will  for  the  future  always  esteem  a  Scotchman." 
The  conduct  of  the  Black  Watch  at  the  battle 
of  Fontenoy  was  especially  noteworthy,  and  has 
become  historic.  Throwing  themselves,  as 
they  advanced,  flat  on  their  faces  while  the 
enemy's  bullets  passed  harmlessly  over  them, 
they  would  suddenly  spring  up,  rush  forward 
while  delivering  a  deadly  fire,  and  then  as  sud- 
denly prostrate  themselves  again.  This  extraor- 
dinary manoeuvre  was  repeated  throughout  the 
day,  Colonel  Munro  alone  remaining  upright 
beside  the  colors ;  for  he  was  of  a  bulk  so  enor- 
mous that,  had  he  fallen  down  like  the  rest, 
only  the  efforts  of  a  number  of  men  pulling  at 
his  legs  and  arms  could  have  put  him  on  his 
feet  again.  His  preservation,  therefore,  was 
well-nigh  miraculous,  and  was  regarded  by  the 
pious  Scotsmen  as  a  special  act  of  God. 

Because  of  his  long  Continental  service  under 
the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  this  Colonel  Sir 
Robert  Munro  and,  of  course,  his  clan  ranged 
themselves  on  the  Hanoverian  side  against  the 
Pretender,  and  fought,  therefore,  with  the 


35 

English  instead  of  with  the  Scotch  at  Culloden. 
Humanity  forbade,  however,  that  the  men  of 
the  Black  Watch,  who  would  have  followed 
their  idolized  leader  anywhere,  should  be  sent 
to  fight  against  their  own  brethren.  So  they 
were  detailed  on  other  duty,  while  Sir  Robert 
was  put  in  command  of  an  English  regiment, 
the  37th.  At  the  battle  of  Falkirk,  however, 
these  Englishmen,  seized  with  panic,  deserted 
their  commander,  leaving  him,  bravely  defend- 
ing himself  against  overwhelming  numbers,  to 
be  slain.  "Ochoin,  Ochoin,"  wailed  an  old 
clansman,  who  died  early  in  this  century,  when 
describing  this  almost-worshipped  Munro  chief 
to  a  boy  who  still  lives,  and  cursing  the  English 
regiment, —  "  Ochoin,  had  his  ain  folk  [mean- 
ing the  Black  Watch]  been  there  !  " 

Colonel  Sir  Robert's  son,  Sir  Harry  Munro, 
the  twenty-fifth  baron,  who  was  educated  at  the 
University  of  Leyden,  seems  to  have  been  a 
scholarly  person  and  a  writer.  His  literary 
methods,  however,  must  have  been  slower  than 
those  of  the  much-heralded  Scotch  writers  of 
to-day;  for  Sir  Harry  gave  thirty  years  to  the 
writing  of  a  dissertation  on  Buchanan's  "  Psalms 


36 

of  David,"  and  then  —  forbore  to  publish  it. 
Of  greater  moment  than  this  work  of  erudition, 
however,  was  the  deed  of  entail  which  he 
executed  during  his  lifetime,  giving  rights  of 
inheritance  to  certain  females  of  the  clan, —  a 
deed  that  proved  to  be  a  source  of  long  and 
disastrous  litigation. 

For  Sir  Harry's  son,  Sir  Hugh,  was,  to  speak 
mildly,  not  a  nice  person;  and  he  contracted  in 
London,  where  he  lived  during  the  greater  part 
of  his  life,  a  Scotch  marriage  (not  legal  in  Eng- 
land), the  only  issue  of  which  was  a  daughter, 
Mary  Seymour  Munro.  By  the  unfortunate 
deed  of  entail  this  daughter,  were  she  legiti- 
mate, would  inherit;  and  it  required  years  of 
lawsuits  and,  finally,  an  appeal  to  the  House  of 
Lords  to  establish  her  legitimacy.  By  the  irony 
of  fate  she  died  within  eight  months  of  her 
father's  decease  ;  but,  during  the  long  and  bitter 
litigation,  the  beautiful  old  estate  of  Fowlis  had 
been  despoiled  of  its  magnificent  timber,  the 
fine  house  had  been  completely  dismantled,  and 
most  of  the  ancient  charters,  deeds,  and  family 
manuscripts  had  been  carried  off  to  London 
and  wantonly  destroyed. 


37 

At  the  death  of  this  Mary  Seymour  Munro, 
in  1848,  the  line  of  succession  passed  over  to 
the  cadet  branch  of  Culrain,  to  Sir  Charles 
Munro,  grandfather  to  the  present  baronet.  Sir 
Charles  had  distinguished  himself  not  a  little 
under  Wellington  in  the  Peninsula;  and  his 
son,  the  second  Sir  Charles,  was,  as  his  grand- 
son, the  present  Sir  Hector,  is,  a  man  of  force 
and  influence.  The  estates,  though  much  re- 
duced, are  still  not  inconsiderable;  and  it  is 
plain,  from  the  reports  of  those  who  have  been 
fortunate  enough  to  visit  the  Inverness  country, 
that  the  head  of  the  Clan  Munro  is  still  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  great  men  of  the  region. 

It  is  impossible  to  go  into  any  extended 
account  of  the  numerous  cadet  families  of 
Munro,  or  to  give  even  a  list  of  the  generals 
and  other  officers,  the  clergymen,  members  of 
Parliament  and  public  men,  who  have  given 
weight  and  sometimes  more  than  local  fame  to 
the  name  of  Munro.  A  few  only  of  the  most 
distinguished  can  be  named.  Having  thus  far 
dealt  mainly  with  warriors,  it  may  be  a  relief 
to  turn  from  them  to  the  cadet  family  of 
Auchenbowie,  with  its  line  of  famous  physi- 


38 

cians.  The  first  of  these  was  Dr.  John  Monro, 
whose  father  fought  at  Worcester,  and  who  died 
in  1737,  having  been  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
great  School  of  Medicine  in  Edinboro.  His 
only  son  was  Dr.  Alexander  Monro,  known  as 
Dr.  "  Sandy,  primus"  to  distinguish  him  from 
his  more  famous  son,  Dr.  "  Sandy,  secundus" 
This  first  Dr.  "  Sandy  "  was  the  founder  of  the 
Royal  Infirmary  in  Edinboro,  was  the  first  Pro- 
fessor of  Anatomy  in  the  university  there,  and 
was  the  author  of  no  less  than  fifty-two  volumes 
on  medicine  and  surgery.  This  first  Dr. 
Alexander's  eldest  son,  John,  became  a  leader 
of  the  Scottish  bar ;  his  second  son,  Robert, 
went  to  London,  and  attained  eminence  there  as 
a  surgeon ;  while  the  third  son  was  the  Dr. 
"  Sandy,  secundus"  already  mentioned.  This 
second  Dr.  "  Sandy "  Monro  succeeded  his 
father  as  Professor  of  Anatomy  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Edinboro,  holding  the  position  for  forty- 
four  years.  He  was,  moreover,  a  founder  of 
the  Royal  Society  there,  and  wrote  many 
medical  treatises,  of  standard  authority,  which 
were  translated  into  foreign  languages,  giving 
him  a  European  reputation.  He  discovered,  or 


39 

identified,  a  crevice  in  the  brain  that  is  still 
called  the  Foramen  of  Monro ;  and  an  eminent 
Scotch  surgeon  who  visited  this  country  some 
years  ago,  and  who,  in  his  youth,  attended  the 
lectures  of  Dr.  "  Sandy's  "  son,  Dr.  Alexander 
Monro,  tertius  (of  whom  presently),  said  that 
that  surgeon  was  wont  to  refer,  with  much 
complacency,  to  "  me  feyther's  hole  in  the 
haid." 

This  Alexander  Monro,  tertius,  succeeded  his 
father  and  grandfather  as  Professor  of  Anatomy 
in  the  University  of  Edinboro,  and  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians.  In 
1847,  when  he  retired  from  the  chair  of 
anatomy,  it  had  been  occupied  from  its  founda- 
tion, nearly  a  century  before,  solely  by  this  one 
family.  Mr.  Mackenzie  says,  in  this  connection  : 
"Alexander,  tertius,  was  the  fourth  in  direct 
succession  of  physicians  in  the  family, —  a  cir- 
cumstance unexampled,  we  believe,  in  Scottish 
medical  history,  but  surpassed  in  England,  where 
Dr.  Henry  Monro,  a  descendant  of  the  Munros 
of  Fyrish  (of  the  same  clan),  was  the  fifth 
physician  in  direct  descent  of  the  same  family."17 

This  Dr.  "  Sandy  "  tertius 's  fourth  son,  David, 


40 

emigrated  to  New  Zealand,  became  one  of  the 
leaders  in  that  colony,  was  speaker  of  its  Parlia- 
ment, and  was  knighted  in  1 866. 

But  the  cadet  families,  like  that  of  the 
baronets,  were  famous,  too,  for  warriors.  First 
among  them,  General  Robert  Monro,  a  doughty 
soldier,  who  seems  to  have  been  master  of  the 
pen  as  well  as  of  the  sword ;  for  not  only  did  he 
command  the  famous  Scots  Brigade  that  did 
such  yeoman  service  under  Gustavus  Adolphus 
in  his  wars  to  establish  Protestantism  in  Europe, 
but  he  wrote  a  book  about  these  wars  which  is 
said  to  be  both  extremely  entertaining  and  of 
high  historical  value. 

Its  title  is  a  model  of  comprehensiveness :  — 


MONRO 
His  EXPEDITION 

WlTH  THE  WORTHY 

SCOTS  REGIMENT  (CALLED  MAC  KEYES  REGIMENT,)  LEVIED  IN 
AUGUST,  1626,  BY  SR.  DONALD  MACKEY,  LORD  RHEES, 
COLONELL  FOR  HIS  MAJESTIES  SERVICE  OF  DENMARK 
AND  REDUCED  AFTER  THE  BATTAILE  OF  HERLING, 
TO  ONB  COMPANY  IN  SEPTEMBER,  1634, 

AT  WOOMES  IN  THE  ?ALTZ. 

DISCHARGED  IN  SEVERAL  DUTIES  AND  OBSERVATIONS  OF  SERVICE  : 
FIRST  UNDER  THE  MAGNANIMOUS  KlNG  OF  DENMARK  DUR- 
ING HIS  WORRIES  AGAINST  THE  EMPEROR,  AFTERWARDS 
UNDER  THE  INVINCIBLE  KlNG  OF  SWEDEN 
DURING  HIS  MAJESTIES  LIFE  TIME  ;  AND 
SINCE  UNDER  THE  DIRECTOR  GEN- 
ERAL THE  REX  CHANCELLOR 
OXENSTERNE,  AND  HIS 

GENERALLS. 

COLLECTED  AND  GATHERED  TOGETHER  AT  SPARE  HOURS  BY  COL. 
ROBERT  MONRO,  AT  FIRST  LIEVETENANT  UNDER  THE  SAID 
REGIMENT,  TO  THE  NOBLE  AND  WORTHY  CAPTAINE 
THOMAS  MAC-KEYNEE,  OF  KILDON,  BROTHER 
TO  THE  NOBLE  LORD,  THE  LoRD  EARLE  OF 
SEAFORTH  ;  FOR  THE  USE  OF  ALL  WORTHIE 
CAVALIERS  FAVOURING  THE  LAUD- 
ABLE PROFESSION  OF  ARMES 

To  WHICH  IS  ANNEXED  THE  ABRIDGEMENT  OF  EXERCISE,  AND 

DIVERS  PRACTICALL  OBSERVATIONS,  FOR  THE  YOUNGER 

OFFICER  HIS  CONSIDERATION  ;  ENDING  WITH  THE 

SOULDIERS  MEDITATIONS  GOING 

ON  SERVICE. 

LONDON  : 

PRINTED  BY  WILLIAM  JONES  IN  RED  CROSS-STREET 
1637- 


This  General  Sir  Robert  Munro,  whose  sword 
was  as  long  as  his  titles,  took  a  prominent  part, 
after  his  return  from  the  Continent,  in  the 
early  wars  of  the  Covenant,  and  was  a  pillar  of 
strength  to  the  Protestant  cause. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
Scotland  and  Europe  having  become  rather  tame 
fields  of  action,  the  fighting  Munros  are  found 
in  India,  being  most  notably  represented  there  by 
General  Sir  Hector  Munro  and  by  Sir  Thomas 
Munro.  Hector  went  out  in  the  service  of  the 
East  India  Company  in  1761,  and  rose  so  rap- 
idly in  military  prowess,  was  so  energetic  in  his 
handling  of  native  troops,  and  made  such  a 
brilliant  capture  of  the  French-Indian  city  of 
Pondicherry  that,  although  a  young  man,  he 
was  soon  promoted  to  be  major-general,  com- 
manding all  the  British  forces.  But,  either 
through  too  rapid  promotion  or  through  in- 
curable faults  of  disposition,  his  subsequent 
career  in  India  was  disastrous  —  indeed,  almost 
fatal  —  to  the  cause  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany. Although  knighted  and  created  a  Com- 
mander of  the  Bath,  he  was  recalled  to  Scot- 
land in  1782,  receiving  the  command  of  the 


43 

Black  Watch,  and  spending  the  remaining 
years  of  his  life  in  raising  and  equipping  Scot- 
tish troops.  Among  his  descendants — though 
with  a  bar-sinister  —  are  Hugh  Andrew  John- 
stone  Munro,  owner  of  the  Novar  collection  of 
paintings, —  of  world-wide  celebrity  in  the  early 
part  of  this  century, —  and  Hugh  Andrew  John- 
stone  Munro,  2d,  professor  of  Latin  at  Cam- 
bridge University  about  1850,  "universally  ad- 
mitted," says  Mr.  Mackenzie,  "  to  have  been 
the  best  Latin  scholar  of  his  day  in  Britain,'* 
his  edition  of  Lucretius  giving  him  European 
fame. 

The  last  Munro  to  be  noted  from  among  the 
cadet  families  is  Sir  Thomas,18  of  the  Culcrag- 
gie  branch,  who  sought  his  fortune  in  India  in 
1780,  and  who  finally  achieved  such  distinction 
as  brigadier-general  in  the  conquest  of  Hyder 
Ali,  Tippoo-Tib,  and  other  native  princes,  and 
such  signal  success  as  governor  of  the  Province 
of  Madras  that  in  1 8 1 9  he  received  the  thanks 
of  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  Mr.  Canning 
moving  the  vote  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  describing  him  as  a  man  "  than  whom 
Europe  never  produced  a  more  accomplished 


44 

statesman,  nor  India,  so  fertile  in  heroes,  a 
more  skilful  soldier."  Thomas  Munro  was 
made  a  K.C.B.  in  1819  and  a  baronet  in  1825. 

As  already  stated,  the  Munro  estates  in  Ross- 
shire  have  been  greatly  reduced  by  litigation; 
and  the  decay  of  the  clan-system  has  made  the 
head  of  the  family  a  person  of  less  importance 
than  was  once  the  case.  But  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  the  spoils  of  the  Church  had 
enriched  its  estates  and  the  feudal  power  of  the 
lairds  had  scarcely  begun  to  decay,  the  Munros 
shared  with  the  Mackenzies  and  the  Rosses  the 
control,  almost  absolute,  of  that  great  central 
Highland  shire  of  Ross,  which  stretches,  north 
of  the  Caledonian  Canal,  from  sea  to  sea. 
Their  lands,  lying  just  north  of  Inverness, 
which  stands  at  the  upper  entrance  of  the  great 
canal  and  is  the  capital  of  the  Highlands,  cov- 
ered a  large  territory. 

At  an  event  comparatively  so  unimportant  as 
a  funeral  they  could  easily  at  that  time  muster  a 
thousand  fighting  men  of  the  name  of  Munro.19 
Their  tartan,  is  a  very  gay  affair ;  but  they  have 
the  right  to  wear,  also,  the  more  sombre  plaid 
of  the  Black  Watch, —  a  right  shared  with  the 


45 

five  other  clans  who  established  the  regiment  in 
1729. 

The  crest  of  the  family  is,  "  On  a  shield  or 
an  eagle's  head,  erased  gules  ;  crest,  an  eagle  on 
the  perch  proper ;  supporters,  two  eagles  proper ; 
motto,  'Dread  God.'"20  The  badge  of  the 
clan  is  the  common  club  moss,  with  its  pretty 
red  flowers ;  its  slogan,  or  war-cry,  is  "  Casteal 
Fulis  na  theine  "  (meaning,  "  Fowlis  Castle  is 
on  fire")  ;  and  its  marching  tune  is  the  "  Beal- 
lach-nam-Brog  "  (the  Pass  of  the  Shoes).21 

In  an  anonymous  manuscript  in  the  British 
Museum  which  has  just  been  published  is  de- 
scribed a  journey  through  the  Highlands  in 
1750.  Therein  the  unknown  author  says: 
"  To  the  West  of  the  Earl  of  Cromarty's  Seat, 
upon  an  arm  of  the  Sea  called  Cromartie  Firth, 
is  the  Country  of  the  Monroes.  The  Gentle- 
men of  this  Clan  are  all  Firm  and  Steady  to  a 
man,  and  the  Commons  are  well-affected,  Hon- 
est, Industrious,  and  Religious  People.  Those 
who  call  them  Enthusiasticall,  Revengeful,  and 
Lazy  do  not  know  them  or  are  highly  preju- 
diced against  them." 


NOTES. 

1.  See,  for  example,  in  the  deed  of  entail  of  Sir  Harry  Munro 
(Mackenzie,  p.  140)    such  lists   as   the  following :    "  The  grazings 
of  Aldnakerach,  Easterlairs,  and  Killaskie,  and  the  forest  of  Wyvis, 
Corrienasearrach,    Corriemore,    Soltach,    Lochcorrie,    Corrienafeola, 
Corrienacon,  Altchonire,  and  the  davoch  lands  of  Cabrill  and  pendi- 
cles  and   outsets   of  the   same,   to  wit  —  Easter  Ballachladdich,   and 
grazings  of  Badgarvie  and  the  shealings  of  Letter,  Wyvis,  Killingshie, 
Corrierachie,     Luvreach,     Imrichnandanh,     Benmonie,     Kianlochmi- 
nochin,   Alritudinem    of  Frarick-Gillandrish,  Tomconish,   Carnafear- 
anvorar,  Reballachcoillie,"  etc. 

2.  In  Liber  I.  of  the   reprint   (Boston,    1880)   from  the   much- 
torn  and  obliterated  Suffolk  Deeds  is  given  the  following  (p.  5)  :  — 

London  this  nth  :  of  Nouember  1651: 
Capt.  Jno  Greene 

Wee  whose  names  are  vnder  written  freighters  of  your  shipe  the  John  &  Sara  doe 
Order  you  forthwith  as  winde  &  weather  shall  permitt  to  sett  sajle  for  Boston  in 
New:  England  &  there  deliuer  our  Orders  and  Servants  to  Tho:  Kemble  of  charles 
Towne  to  be  disposed  of  by  him  according  to  orders  wee  have  sent  him  in  that  behalfe 
&  wee  desire  yow  to  advise  with  the  sajd  Kemble  about  all  that  may  concerne  that 
whole  Intended  vojage  vsing  your  Indeavors  with  the  sajd  Kemble  for  the  speediest 
lading  your  ghipp  from  New:  Eng:  to  the  barbadoes  with  provisions  &  such  other 
things  as  are  in  N.  E.  fitt  for  the  west  Indies  where  you  are  to  deliuer  them  to  Mr 
Charles  Rich  to  be  disposed  of  by  him  for  the  Joinct  accent  of  the  freighters  &  so  to 
be  Retourned  home  in  a  stocke  vndevided  thus  desiring  your  Care  &  industrje  in 
dispatch  &  speed  of  the  vojage  wishing  yow  a  happy  &  safe  Retourne  wee  Remajne 
your  loving  freinds 

Signatum,  et  Recognitum  JOHN  BEEX 

in  pnicia:  Jo:  Nottock  no  Car  Publ  Roet  RICH 

13  May,  1652  WILL  GREENS 

Entred  &  Recorded  per  Edward  Rawson  Recorder 


48 

(A  list  of  272  passengers  follows,  including  "  Robert  monrow, 
John  Monrow,  Hugh  Monrow,"  and  (obliterated)  "monrow"; 
also,  "  Daniell  monlow,  Saunder  morrot,  John  murrow,  James  Rowe, 
Neile  Murrow,  Jonas  murrow,  James  murrow,"  and  ««  John  murrow," 
all  of  whom,  in  view  of  the  atrocious  spelling  of  the  Scotch  names 
throughout  the  list,  may  well  have  been  Munros.) 

3.  Since  there  is  no  doubt  that  old  William  Munro,  of  Lexing- 
ton, was  a  Scotchman,  and  since,  being  so,  he  must  have  been  of  the 
Clan  Munro,  the  question  of  his  exact  descent  is  really  one  of  minor 
consequence.      Even  should  it  be  disproved  that  he  was  one  of  the 
sons  of  Robert  of  Aldie,  it  would  still  be  beyond  dispute  that  he  was 
a  descendant,  through  one  of  the  many  lines,  from  some  of  the  Barons 
Fowlis. 

4.  "  The  first  mention   which  I  find  of   him  in  the  Cambridge 
records  is  in   1657,  when  'Thomas  Rose  and  William  Row'  were 
fined  for  not  having  rings  in  the  nose  of  their  swine.'  "  —  Hudson's 
History  of  Lexington  (Gen.  Reg.},  p.  147. 

5.  "  The  Baptists  still  held  meetings,  and  were  summoned  before 
the  General  Court  October  n  (1665).  .  .  .  The  sentence  was  'that 
Thomas  Gould,  Thomas  Osborn,  Edward  Drinker,  William  Turner, 
and  John  George,  such  of  them  as  are  freemen,  to  be  disfranchised, 
and  all  of  them,  upon  conviction  before  any  one  magistrate  or  court 
of  their  further  proceeding  herein,  to  be  commanded  to  prison  until 
the  General  Court  shall  take  further  order  with  them.' 

"The  Baptists  were  presented,  April  17,  1666,  at  the  County 
Court,  Cambridge,  and  Gould,  Osborn,  and  George  fined  four 
pounds  each,  and  ordered  to  give  bonds  to  appear  before  the  next 
court  of  assistants.  On  refusal  they  were  imprisoned.  A  special 
General  Court,  September  1 1 ,  ordered  them  to  be  released  on  paying 
fines  and  costs." —  Frotbingbam' s  History  of  Cbarlestown,  p.  168. 


49 

6.  "In  the  papers  connected  with  the  inventory  of  his  estate  we 
find  an  inventory  of  the  property  which  belonged  to   her  [Elizabeth 
Wyer],  consisting  of  one  bed,  one  bolster,  one  pillow,  one  chest,  one 
warming-pan,  one  pair  of  tongs,  and  one  pewter  platter." — Hudson's 
History  of  Lexington  (Gen.  Reg.),  p.  148. 

7.  The  very  imperfect  record  in   Mackenzie's   History  notes  the 
participation    in    the    Revolutionary    War    of  twenty-five    Munroes, 
descendants  of  the  first  William  of  Lexington,  fifteen   of  these   being 
present  at  the  battle  of  Lexington.      Most  of  these  twenty-five,  in 
addition  to  thirteen  other   Munroes  who  died  before    1775,  are  re- 
corded as  having  served  in  the  various  Colonial  wars,  notably  in  that 
against  the  French  and  Indians. 

8.  Captain  Munroe's  monument  in  Mound  Cemetery  at  Marietta, 
Ohio,  bears  the  following  inscription  :   "  Captain  Josiah  Munroe,  born 
at  Lexington,  Mass.,  February  12,  1745;   died  at  Marietta,  August, 
1 80 1 .      He  was  an  officer  in  the   Revolutionary  Army,  and  became 
the  friend  of  Lafayette,  who  recognized  his  services  in  the  war  by  the 
gift  of  a  sword.      He  was  one  of  the  original  Ohio  Company,  who 
landed  at  Marietta  April   7,  1788,  and  was  appointed  postmaster  at 
Marietta,  1794,  which  office  he  held  at  the  time  of  his  death." 

9.  Captain  Thaddeus  Bowman  and  six  of  his  sons  were  in  the 
battle    of  Lexington.       One  son,  Solomon,    was    lieutenant    in    the 
Twenty-fifth  Regiment  of  the  Continental  Army,  was  in  the  battle 
of  Bunker  Hill,  and  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Monmouth.     Another 
son,    Captain  Samuel,  was  aide  to  Alexander  Hamilton   throughout 
the  Revolutionary  War.      He  escorted  Major  Andre  to  the  scaffold, 
having  been  with  him  the  night  before  the  execution.      Another  son, 
Ebenezer  (Harvard,  1782),  was  a  prominent  lawyer  of  Wilkes-Barre, 
Pa.      The   fourth  son,  Joseph,   married   Catherine  Munroe,  and  had 
eight  children.      Among  these  was  General  Isaac  Bowman,  a  distin- 
guished citizen  of  Wilkes-Barre,    Pa.,   being  colonel   of  the  Second 


50 

Regiment,  Pennsylvania  line,  in  1813,  and  brigadier -general  of  militia 
until  1834,  Of  his  four  sons,  the  eldest,  Isaac  Munroe,  was  a  grad- 
uate of  West  Point,  and  saw  distinguished  service  in  the  Mexican 
War,  as  also  did  another,  Francis  Loring,  who  was  subsequently 
major-general  of  militia.  A  third,  Samuel,  was  lieutenant-colonel  of 
the  Eighth  Pennsylvania  Volunteers  in  the  Civil  War.  Among  the 
sons  of  the  elder  Captain  Samuel  Bowman  (aide  to  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton) was  Alexander  Hamilton  Bowman  (West  Point,  1825),  who 
superintended  the  erection  of  Fort  Sumter,  was  superintendent  of  the 
Naval  Academy  from  1861  to  1864,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
November  n,  1865,  was  president  of  the  board  of  engineers  ap- 
pointed to  examine  sites  and  locate  forts  along  the  New  England  coast. 
He  also  built  Bowman's  Breakwater  for  the  protection  of  Charleston 
Harbor,  and  was  engineer-in-chief  of  the  Treasury  Building  at  Wash- 
ington and  of  all  custom-houses,  courts,  post-offices,  marine  hospitals, 
mints,  and  assay  offices  of  the  United  States.  His  brother,  Samuel, 
was  bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  for  the  diocese  of 
Pennsylvania. 

10.  In  this  connection  see  the  quaint  letter   of  Hector  Munro, 
dated    from    Rehoboth  February,   1764,   given  in  the   Book    of  the 
Lockes,  p.  304. 

11.  "  When  in  1846  the  steamer  '  Atlantic  '  was  wrecked  in  Long 
Island  Sound,  William  Augustus  [Munroe],  by  his  bravery  and  pres- 
ence of  mind  in  carrying  a  rope  to  the  shore  and  improvising  a  life- 
buoy,   saved  over  one  hundred  lives,   for  which   he  received  many 
tokens  of  gratitude  and  appreciation." — Mackenzie1}  History  of  the 
Munros,  p.  575. 

12.  John  Munroe,  of  Northboro,  Mass.,  after  serving  his  appren- 
ticeship with  the  dry -goods  firm  of  Eliphalet  Baker,  of  Boston,  was 
sent  to  Europe  in  the  interests  of  that  firm  about  1832.     After  many 
voyages  to  and   from  America,  he  settled  in  Paris  as  a  commission 


merchant  and  buyer  for  American  firms  about  1834.  In  1852  he 
established  the  firm  of  John  Munroe  &  Co.,  American  bankers  in 
Paris,  at  the  head  of  which  he  remained  until  his  death,  Dec.  20, 
1870. 

13.  The  cellar  of  the  old  house,  surrounded  by  a  clump  of  trees, 
may  still  be  seen  on  the  right  of  the  Woburn  Road,  a  few  rods  beyond 
its  intersection  with  the  old  Lowell  Turnpike. 

14.  George  Munro,  fifth  son  of  Robert  Munro  (fourteenth  Baron 
of    Fowlis)    and    great-great-great-grandson    of    the    tenth    Baron  of 
Fowlis,  from  whom  the  Lexington   Munros  are  descended,  founded 
the  Cadet  family  of  Katewell.      He  had  a  son,  George,  and  a  grand- 
son, David.      The  third  son  of  this  David  was  "Andrew,  who  under 
his  distinguished  relative,  General  Sir  George  Munro  I.,  of  Newmore, 
fought  with  the  rank  of  major  at  the  battle  of  Preston  on  the  i  yth  of 
August,  1648  ;   was  taken  prisoner  there,  and  banished  to  Virginia, 
America.       Andrew    managed    to    effect    his   escape,   and   settled  in 
Northumberland   County,  Virginia,  where  he  had  several  grants   of 
land  made  to  him,  the  first  extending  to  200  acres,  designated  as  one 
of  the  'Head  Rights,'  being  dated  the  8th  of  June,  1650.      He  mar- 
ried and  had  issue,  from  whom,  it  is  believed,  President  Monroe,  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  was  descended.  "  —  Mackenzie's  His- 
tory of  the  Munros,  p. 


15.  "On  the  death  of  his  brother,  the  Black  Baron  [Robert,  six- 
teenth baron],  .  .  .  Colonel  Hector  temporarily  returned  to  Scotland 
to  take  possession  of  the  family  estates  and  assume  his  position  as  head 
of  his  house.  While  in  London  on  his  journey  to  the  north,  he 
waited  upon  Charles  I.,  by  whom  he  was  graciously  received,  and 
was  shortly  afterwards,  in  1634,  created  a  Baronet  of  Nova  Scotia. 
The  royal  patent,  or  diploma,  conferring  the  title  is  dated  the  yth  of 
June,  and  addresied,  'Domino  Hector  de  Foulis,  militi  baronetto, 
terrarum  baroniae  et  regalitates  de  Foulis  in  regimine  Novae  Scotiae  in 


America,   et  haeredibus  suis  masculis  quibuscunque.'  " —  Mackenzie* s 
History  of  the  Munroi,  p.  84. 

1 6.  "  Some  ||  Remarkable  Passages  ||  in  the  ||  LIFE  ]|  of  the  Honourable  || 
COL.  JAMES   GARDINER || Who  was  SLAIN   at   the  Batde||of  PRESTON- 
PANS.  ||  SEPTEMBER   21,   1745.  ||  With  ||  An  Appendix  relating  to  the 
antient  Family  ||of  the  MUNRO'S  of  Fowlis.  by  P.  DODDRIDGE,  D.D.  || 
GLASGOW,  || Printed  for  JOHN  ORR,  and  sold  first  shop||above  Gibson's 
Wynd.     M.DCC.LXIV." 

17.  I.   Dr.  James  Monro,  F.R.C.P.,  born  September   2,    1680. 
Graduated    Balliol    College,    Oxford,    B.A.     1703;    M.D.     1712; 
Harveian  orator,  1737  ;  physician  to  Bethlehem  Hospital. 

II.  Dr.  John    Monro.    F.R.C.P.,   born    November    16,    1715. 
Graduated  St.  John's  College,   Oxford,   B.A.   1737;  M.D.  1747; 
Harveian  orator,  1757  ;  succeeded  his  father  as  physician  to  Bethle- 
hem Hospital ;    specialist  in  insanity. 

III.  Dr.   Thomas  Monro,  F.R.C.P.,  born   1759.       Graduated 
Oriel    College,     Oxford,     B.A.     1780;     M.D.      1787;     Harveian 
orator,    1 799  ;  principal  physician  of  Bethlehem  Hospital,  in  succes- 
sion   to    his    father ;   patron    of  fine    arts,  especially    of  J.   M.   W. 
Turner  ;    attended  George  III.  in  his  last  illness. 

IV.  Dr.   Edward  Thomas  Monro,   F.R.C.P.,  born  November, 
1789.       Graduated    Oriel    College,    Oxford,    B.A.     1809;    M.D. 
1814;    treasurer   of  the    College    of   Physicians  ;    Harveian   orator, 
1834  ;  principal  physician  of  Bethlehem    Hospital,  in   succession  to 
his  father. 

V.  Dr.   Henry    Monro,    F.R.C.P.,    born   January    10,    1817. 
Graduated  Oriel  College,  Oxford,  B.A.  1839  5   M.D.  1863  ;  presi- 
dent   of  Medical    Psychological    Association,    1864—65  ;    consulting 
physician  to  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  London,  for  thirty  years. 

18.  See  Life,  by  Rev.  G.  R.  Gleig  (3  vols.,  London,  1830),  and 
Memoir,  by  Sir  Alex.  J.  Arbuthnot,  K. C.S.I.  (London,  1889). 


53 

19.  "In   1632  the  Monroes  mustered  1,000  strong  at  the  funeral 
of  Lord  Lovat  in  Kirkhill.     The  Grants  were  800,  the  Mackenzies 
900,  the  Rosses   1,000,   and  the  Erasers    1,000, —  all  in  arms, —  a 
singular  gathering."    —  The  Scottish  Clans  and  their  Tartans,  p.  /p. 

20.  There  is  much  variation  among  the  coats-of-arms  named  by 
the  several  authorities  on  heraldry.      That    given    receives  the  most 
general  sanction. 

21.  For  this  and  other  like  information,  see  Wbat  is  my   Tartan? 
by  Frank  Adam,  F.S.A.      W.  6-  A.  K.  Johnston,  1896. 


LETTER   FROM   SARAH    MUNROE   TO 
MARY   MASON. 


PREFACE. 

On  the  jth  of  November,  1889,  the  Lexington  Historical 
Society  commemorated  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  visit 
of  President  Washington  to  Lexington  by  giving  a  public  dinner. 
As  a  descendant  of  the  innkeeper  at  whose  house  the  illustrious 
general  was  entertained,  I  was  asked  to  speak. 

Wishing  only  to  be  informal,  to  avoid  the  conventions  of  after- 
dinner  speaking,  to  relieve  the  solemnity  of  history  with  a  touch 
of  human  nature,  in  an  evil  hour  I  forged  the  name  of  a  great- 
aunt  (dead  these  many  years]  to  a  letter  that  she  did  not  write, 
that  (kindly  sou/]  she  would  not  have  written,  that  —  so  circum- 
stantial is  it  —  she  could  not  have  written,  had  she  tried ;  and  for 
ten  years  have  I  been  attempting  to  disentangle  myself  from  the 
consequences  of  what  seemed  then  so  innocent  a  deception. 

Real  historians  have  frowned  at  this  poor  letter,  and  consigned 
its  luckless  author  to  a  literary  penitentiary.  Amateur  historians, 
keen  for  "historical  sources"  have  quoted  its  statements  as  veri- 
table and  convincing.  Students  of  history  have  wrangled  over 
the  question  of  its  genuineness,  appealing  to  him  who  read  it  to 
settle  their  disputes.  In  short,  the  eagerness  with  which  the 
present  generation  study  the  early  periods  of  American  history  in 
order,  by  a  strange  inversion,  to  make  themselves  god-children  to 
certain  wan  and  skirmishes,  has  given  the  letter,  as  throwing  light 
upon  a  century-old  period,  a  prominence  which  it  has  in  no  wise 
deserved.  Even  the  Boston  Evening  Transcript,  that  admirable 
newspaper,  which  dares  to  be  clean  and  wholesome  and  to  verify 


5" 

its  facts,  has  quoted  the  forged  epistle  more  than  once,  not,  how- 
ever, without  being  sharply  called  to  task  for  doing  so. 

As  a  sort  of  public  penance,  then,  I  put  the  letter  forth  again 
with  this  foreword  of  confession.  More  fully  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  it  is  not  genuine,  I  preface  it  with  the  last  of  my  letters 
of  expostulation  to  the  Transcript  and  with  the  words,  fatally 
disingenuous,  which  preceded  the  reading  of  the  letter  to  its  original 
hearers, —  words  which  were  not  altered  in  the  printed  "Proceed- 
ings of  the  Lexington  Historical  Society" 

The  last,  and  I  hope  final,  letter  to  the  Transcript,  which 
follows,  was  called  forth  by  a  citation  of  Sarah  Munroe  as  author- 
ity for  the  prevalence  of  influenza  in  the  last  century  :  — 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Transcript :  — 

Having  already  sent  one  protest,  which  you  kindly  published  a 
year  or  two  ago,  against  the  use,  as  an  historical  source,  of  a  letter 
purporting  to  have  been  written  by  Sarah  Munroe  to  Mary  Mason, 
published  in  the  "  Proceedings  (vol.  i.)  of  the  Lexington  Historical 
Society,"  I  hesitated  to  burden  your  columns  again  upon  seeing  it 
quoted,  not  long  ago,  as  an  authority  for  the  prevalence  of  grip  in 
1780.  Tour  courteous  request,  however,  for  the  particulars  of 
that  letter  gives  me  an  opportunity  of  which  I  am  glad  to  avail 
myself. 

In  November,  1889,  the  Lexington  Historical  Society  celebrated 
the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  Washington's  visit  to  that  town 
by  a  public  dinner,  with  speeches.  As  a  great-grandson  of  Colonel 
William  Munroe,  at  whose  tavern  in  Lexington  Washington 
dined,  I  was  asked  to  give  an  account  of  so  much  of  his  visit  as 
was  connected  with  that  old  house.  To  make  the  story  more  in- 
teresting, I  put  it  into  the  form  of  a  letter  supposed  to  have  been 
written  by  my  great-aunt,  Sarah  Munroe  —  at  that  time  a  young 


59 

girl — to  her  friend  and  neighbor,  Mary  Mason,  alleged  to  be  on 
a  visit  to  New  York. 

To  prepare  this  letter,  I  consulted  every  authority  available,  in- 
cluding Washington's  "  Diary,"  the  "  Familiar  Letters  on  Public 
Characters,"  Hudson's  "  History  of  Lexington"  the  newspapers 
of  the  day  (preserved  in  the  State  library),  and  other  volumes  that 
I  do  not  now  recall.  In  addition,  I  gathered  from  elderly  persons 
in  Lexington  all  relevant  traditions.  Weaving  this  material  to- 
gether, imitating  the  epistolary  style  of  the  time,  and  placing  myself 
as  far  as  possible  in  the  mental  attitude  of  a  young  country  girl  of 
that  day,  the  letter  was  evolved. 

It  contains  nothing  —  except  the  minor  character  sketching  — 
for  which  I  did  not  have  either  contemporary  authority  or  the  most 
reliable  tradition.  The  statements  regarding  the  weather,  the 
prevalence  of  grip,  the  behavior  and  words  of  Washington,  the 
personnel  of  his  following,  the  "  reception  committee  "  at  Lexington, 
the  family  at  the  tavern,  the  bill  of  fare,  the  gowns  of  the  children, 
—  in  short,  all  the  details, —  were  dug  out  either  from  journals, 
reminiscences,  newspaper  columns  and  advertisements  of  1789,  or 
from  well-authenticated  tradition.  Therefore,  while  the  letter 
itself  is  a  fiction,  it  contains  scarcely  anything  but  historical  facts 
placed,  for  the  entertainment  of  an  after-dinner  company,  in  an 
unconventional  setting. 

The  fraud  seemed  to  me  so  patent,  the  possibility  of  belief  by  any 
one  that  a  half-educated  young  girl  would  prepare  a  narrative  so 
straightforward  and  circumstantial  appeared  to  me  so  remote,  that 
I  had  no  thought  of  the  skit  being  taken  seriously.  I  have  been 
greatly  annoyed,  therefore,  at  the  quotations  which  have  appeared 
implying  this  letter  to  be  genuine ;  and  I  beg  that,  in  future,  all 
references  to  this  unfortunate  epistle  may  be  excluded  from  your 
paper. 


6o 

The  prefatory  words  to  the  reading  of  the  letter  were  —  exclud- 
ing the  bracketed  comments  which  now  gauge  the  depths  of  the 
speaker's  duplicity  —  as  follows :  — 

"  When  I  was  asked  to  assume  the  honorable  task  of  represent- 
ing my  great-grandfather  here  to-night,  I,  naturally,  searched  the 
old  Munroe  tavern  for  memorials  of  him,  but  without  success. 
[  Which  was  wholly  true,  and  a  musty,  dusty  search  it  was.~\  A 
hunt  through  the  garret  of  the  old  Mason  house  was,  however, 
more  fortunate,  as  it  resulted  in  this  letter.  [  True  only  in  the 
Hibernian  sense  that,  the  Mason  house  having  no  garret  worth 
mentioning,  the  non-existence  of  that  attic  suggested  a  manufactured 
letter •.]  The  original,  of  which  this  is  a  copy  [alas  !  how  many  copies 
of  their  originals  do  most  poor  writers  have  to  make  /]  bears  the  date 
[and  it  did~[  Nov.  J,  ijSy,  and  is  indorsed  [as  pains  were  taken 
that  it  should  be~\  in  a  fine  Italian  hand,  <-Miss  Sarah  Munroe, 
Lexington,  to  Miss  Mary  Mason,  New  York.1  Sarah  was  the 
second  daughter  of  Colonel  William  Munroe,  the  other  children 
being  William,  Anna,  Lucinda,  'Jonas,  and  Edmund.  Mary  was 
the  only  daughter  of  Mr.  Joseph  Mason,  a  famous  pedagogue,  and 
for  many  years,  including  1789,  town  clerk.  [All  of  which  was 
fact.~[  Of  the  reason  of  Miss  Mason's  sojourn  in  New  York  we 
are  not  informed"  [ds,  indeed,  we  were  not.~\ 

The  Munroe  'Tavern,  built  in  1695  by  William  Munro,  son 
of  the  original  William  Munro,  of  Lexington,  and  kept  by  him 
for  a  few  years  as  a  hostelry,  passed  to  his  brother-in-law,  John 
Comey,  and  thence  to  a  Mr.  Buckman.  Purchased  into  the 
family  again  in  I? JO  by  William  Munroe,  grandson  of  the 
builder,  it  was  kept  by  him  and  by  his  son  Jonas  as  a  public 
house  until  the  building  of  railroads  changed  transportation,  closed 
most  of  the  inns  that  had  for  so  long  given  shelter  to  great  com- 


6i 

ponies  of  travellers,  and  brought  the  name  of  tavern-keeper  —  one 
of  high  dignity  seventy  years  ago  —  into  a  sort  of  ill-repute.  This 
third  William  Munroe  was  orderly  sergeant  at  the  battle  of 
Lexington,  and  at  the  time  of  Washington's  visit  was  forty-seven 
years  old.  His  children  —  all  by  his  first  wife,  who  had  died  in 
1781,  and  had  been  succeeded  by  a  second,  Widow  Polly  Rogers  — 
were :  William,  at  the  time  of  the  President's  visit  twenty-one 
years  of  age ;  Anna,  nineteen  ;  Sarah,  the  supposed  writer  of  the 
letter,  sixteen ;  Lucinda,  thirteen ;  "Jonas,  eleven ;  and  Edmund, 
nine. 


LETTER   FROM    SARAH    MUNROE   TO 
MARY   MASON. 

NOVEMBER,  1789. 

My  ever  deare  Mary:  — 

I  crave  your  patience  in  this  Episle,  as  I 
must  finish  it  to  go  by  the  Sunday  Coach,  and 
therfore  indight  it  by  a  bad  candle,  dip'd,  I 
warrant,  by  Brother  Jonas,  who  is  ever  slack 
in  all  except  his  play.  We  have  had  great 
doings  here.  Our  Loved  President  has  jour- 
nied  here  to  Lex.  &  has  took  dinner  at  our 
very  House.  I  suppose  you,  in  the  Great  City 
of  New  York,  can  have  little  interrest  in  the 
small  haps  of  a  Country  Town,  but  remember 
that  it  is  the  birth-place  of  you,  and  of  Ameri- 
can Freedom !  I  suppose,  by  this  time,  the 
Boston  news  have  reached  you,  with  the  rela- 
tion of  the  Jurney  of  Mr.  Washington  to  Bos- 
ton and  of  his  reseption  therein,  how  he  stood 
many  hours  in  the  peircing  Wind,  waiting  for 


64 

an  end  to  the  bikkerings  of  the  Honourable 
Selectmen,  and  how,  therby,  he  incured  a  most 
vile  Grippe  wh.  his  loyal  subjects  thereupon 
took  to  themselves,  being  only  too  Happy,  so 
they  declare,  to  share  even  the  Infloowenza 
with  the  Noble  Washington  ! l  But  know  you, 
what  the  News-letters  have  doubtles  not  re- 
count'd,  that  this  very  infloowenza  has  been  to 
my  Respected  Step-mother  the  cause  of  much 
Distres.  For  you  must  know  that  our  reverend 
Parson  having  gone  to  Town  of  a  friday,  to  see 
the  great  President  and  to  aske  the  helth  of  his 
Cousn  the  Wurshipfull  Gov.  Hancock,2  wch  is 
sorely  plaged  with  the  Gowt,  comes  back  with 
the  tydings  that  Mr.  Washington  with  Gen1. 
Lincoln  and  many  others  with  him,  was 
Minded  to  come  to  Lexington  of  the  Monday 
folowing,  being  the  26th  of  the  last  mo.  And 
therupon  did  the  Parson  make,  on  the  Sabbath, 
3  most  eddyfying  Discourses,  tending  to  pre- 
pare our  Hearts  for  the  Visit,  (they  being,  of  a 
course,  Decent,  and  touching  upon  Worldly 
things  only  so  far  as  might  be  Seemly.)  Now, 
after  2d  meeting,  my  respected  Step-mother 
had  much  ado  wether  or  no  she  could  put  the 


65 

Pyes  and  pudings  wch  we,  with  the  aid  of 
Mistress  Downing  and  your  Worthy  Mother, 
had  prepar'd  on  the  Saturday,  into  the  Oven 
on  a  Sabbath  afternoon  afore  the  Sun  setting. 
Hapily  the  afternoon  was  over-cast  and  the 
hour  of  Setting  come  early.  Then  did  we  all, 
exsept  the  Children  who  have  little  care  in 
these  maters  but  to  require  to  be  constant  Chid, 
set  up  the  whole  night  to  watch  the  oven  lest 
some  misschance  befal  the  contents.  You  may 
juge  we  looked  befrowzel'd,  come  Morning, 
but  soon  after  cock-Crow  came  a  messenjer 
rid  out  at  the  Comand  of  the  Sec'y  of  the 
wurshipfull  Govor,  to  tell  us  that  Mr.  Washing- 
ton was  to  sick,  the  infloowenza  having  seezed 
his  left  Eye,  to  attend  us,  the  day  being  Raw 
and  blusterry.3  Then  such  a  borling  as  was 
heard  from  the  children,  espesialy  Lucindy, 
who  is  ever  forward  in  the  making  of  noyse, 
and  my  step-Mother  was  like  to  say  hard  words 
dispite  the  Parson  his  so  recent  eddyfying  Dis- 
courses. Now  was  great  Questioning  if  his 
Highness4  (for  so  I  like  to  call  him)  wd  come 
to  our  Town  at  all,  till  at  last  'twas  rumered 
that  having  great  Desire  to  see  the  field  of 


66 

Lexington,  therefore  he  wd  turn  his  road  in 
this  Direction  on  his  coming  back  from  the 
State  of  New  Hamshire.  Mother,  thereupon, 
bad  Lucindy,  who  still  borled  lustyly,  to  make 
her  respecs  to  naybors  Mulliken  and  Downing 
(and  I  warant  you  Naybors  Mason  were  not 
forgot)  and  to  ask  them  come  eat  the  President 
his  Feast.  They  all  come  in  good  time  and 
my  honnered  Father  set  out  to  make  them 
Merry,  but  'twas  easy  seen  that  he  tho't  naybor 
Downing  but  a  sorry  makeshift  for  his  ex- 
spected  guest.  Tour  good  parrents  be,  of  a 
course,  always  Wellcome. 

But  you  must  be  uneasy  to  hear  tell  of  Mr. 
Washington  his  real  Visit.  'Twas  on  Thurs- 
day last,  and  Wednesday,  you  may  be  bound, 
was  a  bussy  day,  what  with  Baking  and  mixing 
and  the  Brewing  of  a  fresh  Lot  of  beer  for 
the  Flip.  Then  to,  had  all  the  plate  to  be 
scowr'd  and  the  brases  rubbed  and  the  Floors 
new  sanded  ('tis  a  shame  to  my  thinking,  that 
we  shd  have  no  carpet  when  even  the  Taylor, 
Master  Bond,  hath  one)  and  my  ribbands  and 
gown  to  be  furbish'd,  for  'twas  decided  that 
none  but  Lucindy  shd  have  a  new  frock,  so  / 


67 

had  to  go  without,  while  she,  pert  minx,  had  a 
most  loveley  Gown  of  green  callimanco,  with 
Plumes  to  her  hat.  I  wore  my  old  tammie 
which  is  to  thin  for  the  seeson  and  has,  more- 
by-tokcn,  been  turn'd.5 

We  were  not,  this  time,  so  Forward  in  set- 
ting up  the  Night,  as  we  were  mightyly  tyred, 
you  may  beleive.  Come  Morning  'twas  clear, 
tho'  somewhat  Frosty,  and  good  sister  Anna 
minding  to  stay  home  &  help  Step-mother  lay 
the  table,  Jonas  &  Edmund  &  I  and  the  pert 
Lucindy,  who  is  truely  a  great  cross  to  me,  set 
out  for  the  Green.  'Twas  tho't  that  Mr. 
Washington  wod  come  by  ten  of  the  clock, 
but  'twas  full  noon  ere  he  come.  As  he  must 
enter  by  the  road  by  the  Parson's,  I  was  for 
Walking  out  to  meet  him,  but  Jonas  would  not, 
wether  from  Sloth  or  from  fear,  I  know  not. 
Betimes  Mr.  Washington  appered,  bestridding  a 
most  hansome  White  horse.  He  wore  a  milli- 
tary  Habit,  much  like  that  of  my  Worthy 
Father,  only  gayer  and  with  fine  things,  I 
mind  not  what  they  call  'em,  on  the  showl- 
ders.6  His  Hat  he  wore  under  his  arm,  and 
he  bent  himself  to  the  one  side  and  the  other 


68 

as  he  Passed.  I  promise  you  we  huzzared 
stoutly,  but  he  bowed  not,  only  leaned,  as  one 
shd  say,  towards  us.  Beside  him  road  the 
Honble  Mr.  Phillips,  the  Worshippfull  Presi- 
dent of  the  Sennate.  Behind  come  the  two 
Seccretar5  Major  (or  Col°)  Jackson  &  Mr. 
Tobbias  Lear,  &  ahind  all  grined  a  Black  man. 
Over  against  the  Meeting  House  stood  to  meet 
Mr.  Washington  all  the  great  men  of  the  Town 
(exsepting  my  Father  who  could  not  be  spar'd 
from  the  House)  and  them  that  was  in  the 
fight.  There  was  the  Selectmen  Masters  Ham- 
mond Reed,  John  Chandler,  Amos  Marrett 
and  Joseph  Smith,  there  was  the  Honble  Mr. 
Simons  of  the  General  Court  and  there  was  old 
Mr.  Bridge,  and  Maj.  John  Bridge,  Sarjent 
Brown  with  his  cheek  all  scared,  Nath.  Farmer 
with  his  arm  in  a  Sling,  tho'  'twas  well,  years 
agone,7  well  favorred  Master  Chandler  who  has 
gone  and  marryed  more's  the  pitty  and  is  to  be 
a  Capn  in  the  Millisha,  many  Harringtons  & 
Smiths  and  Sundry  others,  not  forgeting  Prince 
Estabrook  the  Black  man,  who  was  being  made 
ackwainted,  tho'  stiffly,  with  Mr.  Washington 
his  servents,  who  had  come  up  with  his  Coach. 


69 

And  there  in  the  Front  was  your  Father  and 
the  Parson.  Your  dad  wd  have  held  the  Pres1 
his  stirup,  but  he  wd  not  permitt  of  it,  &  threw 
himself  from  the  sadle  with  a  Jump,  for  'tis 
said  he  is  wonderus  strong,  tho'  so  old.  Then 
was  there  some  figetting,  none  knowing  what 
'twas  fiting  to  do.  But  Mr.  Washington  let 
them  not  stand  long  abbashed,  for  he  said, 
"Where  is  Leftenent  Tidd,  who  was  next  to 
Cap'n  Parker?"8  and  when  they  put  Master 
Tidd  forward,  the  President  gave  him  a  fine 
grasp  of  the  hand,  saying  nought,  however. 
Then  took  he  respectfuly  the  Parson  his  Hand, 
saying,  "  Our  distinguish'd  and  dear  Friend  the 
Honble  Govener  has  told  me  much  of  his  fear- 
less Kinsman,  Parson  Clark."  Then  followed 
some  Speach  which  I  heard  not,  daring  to 
venture  no  nearer  than  I  was,  being  that  I  had 
an  old  Frock,  and  compeled  to  hold  back 
Lucindy.  Soon  the  whole  Troupe  betook 
themselves  to  the  Spot  where  the  Blood  was 
spilled. 

Mr.  Washington  seemed  somthing  sollem  at 
first,  but  soon  waxed  livlyer  and  asked  many 
Questions,  they  told  me,  of  the  Fight.  He 


7o 

would,  moreover,  see  the  Houses  round  about, 
and  when  he  enterred  Mr.  Buckman  his  Tavern, 
I  was  in  great  figget  'till  he  come  out,  fearing 
lest  he  might  be  entreated  into  Eating  there. 
At  last  it  being  close  onto  two  of  the  clock, 
the  hour  set  for  the  dining,  we  set  out,  the 
Pres*  and  the  rest  riding  and  walking  at  the 
head,  and  the  Coach  and  the  Townsfolk  taging 
after,  huzzaring  and  waving  kerchefs.  'Twas 
a  pitty  we  gave  him  no  set  speach  as  'twas  did 
in  many  Towns  no  biger  than  ours,9  and  your 
Father  could  have  writ  it  exselent.  When  we 
come  to  the  house  there  stood  my  Father  and 
step-mother  at  the  tap-room  Door,  Anna  and 
the  naybors  skulking  in  the  parlour.  My 
Father  looked  grandly  in  his  rejimentels  and 
proud  indeed  was  I  of  him  as  he  led  the  way 
to  the  Dinner-room  prepar'd  for  Mr.  Washing- 
ton in  the  upper  room,  looking  towards  your 
House.  'Twas  arrang'd  that  my  Step-mother 
dish  the  vittles  in  the  kitch'n,  yours  should 
bring  them  to  the  stares  (the  short  way,  thou 
knows't,  thro'  the  shop  &  the  Tap-room)  and 
then  my  Father  shod  serve  them  to  the  gests. 
'Twas  permited  me  to  stand  in  the  corner 


betwixt  the  windows,  to  give  what  help  was 
needed.  We  had  a  right  fine  feast,  I  can  tell 
you,  and  much  of  it ;  rosted  Beef,  a  showlder 
of  pork,  Chickins,  pyes,  Puddings,  Syllybubs, 
and,  best  of  all,  some  fine  young  Pigens  sent  in 
by  the  Widow  Mulliken.  Mr.  Washington 
would  have  none  but  plane  things,  however, 
saying,  as  my  Father  handed  the  others  to  him, 
That  is  to  good  for  me.  When  the  pigens,  of 
which  there  was  but  few,  were  served,  the 
Pres1  said  Are  all  these  fine  kickshores  for  my  ser- 
vents  to  ?  My  Father  stamering  that  he  had 
not  tho't  to  give  them  Such,  his  Highness  bade 
the  dish  of  Squobs  be  divided  in  half  that  his 
Black  men,  forsooth,  might  have  the  same  as 
him.  During  the  dining  he  talked  of  little 
other  than  the  Vilenes  of  the  Roads,  calling 
them  as  Blind  and  Ignorent  as  the  directions 
of  the  Inhabittents.10  He  had  more  to  say 
than  was  seemley,  to  my  thinking,  of  the 
Ladyes,  how  hansome  he  found  them,  their 
black  Hair  being  to  his  liking.11  He  was  ex- 
ceeding Frugall  in  his  drinking,  as  well  as  in 
his  Feeding,  for  he  took  but  one  Mug  of  beer 
and  two  glasses  of  wine  during  the  whole  meal. 


After  the  second  Glass  he  rellated  sundry  An- 
eckdotes,  but  with  such  gravyty  &  slowness 
that  none  durst  smile.  He  told  us  that 
Mr.  Franklin  having  been  much  Vexed  in 
England  by  the  British  complaneing  that  the 
Yankees,  as  they  term  us,  took  a  wrong  ad- 
vanttage  on  the  I9th  of  April,  in  firing  from 
behind  Stone-walls,  the  great  phileosofer  had 
retort'd  "  Were  they  not  two  sides  to  the 
Walls  ?  " 12  The  only  other  Storey  I  mind  his 
telling  is  of  his  having  come  to  a  Tavern  where 
the  Host  was  away  and  where  they  had  to 
arowse  the  Mistress,  she  being  in  bed ;  on  hear- 
ing that  the  President  was  below,  seeking 
shelter,  she  would  have  nought  to  do  with 
him,  beleiving  him  to  be  but  the  President  of 
the  little  Yale  Colledge  in  Conn1.  A  most 
diverting  Thing  took  place  after  this ;  Mr. 
Washington,  you  must  know,  is  much  besstirred 
over  Farming  matters  and  had  much  to  ask  of 
the  crops  et  cetra,  and  so  talking,  he  turned  to 
Mr.  Marrett  and  asked  if  he  tho't  not  that  the 
hogs  in  N.  E.  have  exseeding  long  legs ;  this 
well-nigh  upsett  the  comp'y,  for  you  must 
know  that  'twas  Mr.  Marrett  who,  at  the  last 


73 

town  meeting,  contend'd  that  the  Hogs  shd  be 
impownded,  &,  more  by  token,  he  will  soon 
be  named  for  Hog-reave  himself,  being  about 
to  Marry.  The  mirth  at  this  might  have 
prov'd  Unbecoming  had  not  just  then  arose  a 
great  cracking  and  howling.  We  rushed  to 
the  Window  and  there  in  the  butt'nwood  Tree 
was  Jonas,  clinging  to  the  fril  of  Lucindy's 
skirt,  and  she  dangeling  in  mid-air.  Before  we 
could  get  out  of  the  Room,  one  of  the  Black- 
men  had  climed  the  tree  and  caught  Lucindy 
by  the  Neck  like  a  Cat,  and  carryed  her  down. 
The  silly  child  had  led  Jonas  into  climing  the 
Tree  with  her  to  look  in  at  the  dinner-room 
Window,  and  a  limb  having  snapped  she  wod, 
but  for  Jonas,  have  broke  her  neck.  Her  new 
frock  was  quite  spoyled.  After  the  meal  my 
Father  shew  the  comp'y  the  Massonic  Hall 
over  the  shop  for  Mr.  Washington  is  a  mason, 
but,  sayes  my  Father,  a  very  lukewarm  one, 
thro'  Pollicy.  The  forwerd  Lucindy  had 
meanwhile  been  put  into  an  apon  to  hyde  the 
Rents  in  her  frock,  and  now  she  pushed  her- 
self into  the  President  his  presense.  He  no- 
tised  her,  perforce,  and  the  minx  was  thereat 


74 

Bold  enough  to  intreat  him  go  with  her  to  get 
Pares  from  the  old  button-pare  tree  in  the 
Hollow.  He  indulgentley  consent'd  &  she 
led  him  thither.  He  raised  her  in  his  arms 
that  she  might  reach  the  Pares,  and  on  leting 
her  down,  I  cannot  Sware  to  it,  but  I  firmly 
beleive,  that  he  gave  her  a  Smack.  She  is 
quite  to  Old,  to  my  thinking,  for  such  foldy- 
rol.  His  Highness  then  stood  for  a  while 
afore  the  House,  admiring  at  the  trees,  himself 
the  center  of  all  Eyes.  Spying  something 
White  behind  the  wall  oposite,  he  querried 
what  it  might  be,  at  wch  we  well-nighe  burst 
with  larmng,  for,  in  truth,  'twas  your  Granney 
herself,  who  had  crawled  up  with  much  ado, 
&  who  was  now  peeping,  her  Cap  all  a-wry,  to 
see  the  Pres1. 

The  Sun  being  now  low,  Mr.  Washington 
entered  his  carrige,  and  started  off  to-wards 
Watertown,  having  denied  a  Mug  of  Flip 
which  my  Father,  with  much  pains,  had  pre- 
par'd.  Messiers  Tobyas  Lear  and  Jackson  and 
the  Black  men  did  not  say  him  nay,  tho',  I 
warant  you. 

I  have  burned    3   Dips,  which   is  sinfull,  & 


75 

have  set  up  long  beyond   Bell-ringing  to  send 
you  this,  so  now  must  I  stop. 

Your  ever  afectionate 

SALLY. 

Post  -  scriptum.  The  President  payed  no 
Heed  to  me  wch,  indeed,  I  would  not  have 
alowed,  as  did  Lucindy. 

Post- scriptum  2.  If  thou  have  a  new  Shalloon 
for  Madam  Washington's  Friday  route,13  do  not 
akwaint  me  of  it,  lest  I  die  with  covetting. 


NOTES. 

1.  "In  1789  President  Washington  visited  the  Eastern  States.     He 
travelled  in  a  post-chaise  with  four  horses.     He  was  accompanied  by 
Major  Jackson,  official  secretary,   and   by  Tobias   Lear,   his   private 
secretary,  and  attended  by  his  famous  man,  Billy,  who  makes  a  con- 
spicuous figure  in   the  forged  letters.     A  disagreement  arose  between 
the  Governor  (Hancock)  and  the  Town's  Committee  to  which  of  them 
belonged  the  honor  of  receiving  the  President  at  the  line  of  the  town. 
From  this  cause  there  was  a  long  delay,  during  which  the  President 
was  exposed   to  a  raw  north-east  wind,   by  which  exposure  he  was 
visited   by  a  severe   cold.      Many  other  persons  were   exposed   and 
affected  in  like  manner,  and  the  affection  became  so  general  as  to  be 
called  the  Washington  influenza." — Familiar  Letters  on  Public  Char- 
acters, etc.,  second  edition,  Boston,  1834,  p.  14. 

"The  Influenza,  which  has  raged  in  the  Southern  states,  is  so  pre- 
vailing in  the  town,  that  nine-tenths  of  the  citizens  now  labour  under 
it." —  Massachusetts  Centinel,  Nov.  7,  1789- 

"  The  Influenza,  as  it  is  termed,  which  is  now  so  common  among 
us,  has  raged  greatly  in  Europe,  as  well  as  in  the  Southern  States  of 
America,  and  to  some  has  proved  fatal." —  Independent  Chronicle ,  Nov. 
12,  1789. 

2.  Jonas  Clarke,  minister  of  the  church  at  Lexington  from  1755  to 
1805,   married    Lucy   Bowes,   grand-daughter  of  Thomas  Hancock, 
minister  of  the  same  church  from    1698  to   1752.     Governor  John 
Hancock  was   a   grandson   of  this   Reverend   Thomas.      As   to   this 
famous  attack  of  the  gout,  which  forced  the  governor  to  absent  himself 
from  the  state  banquet  given  in  Boston  to  Washington,  Lodge  says  : 
"  Hancock,  as  the  chief  officer  of  what  he  esteemed  a  sovereign  State, 


78 

undertook  to  regard  Washington  as  a  sort  of  foreign  potentate,  who 
was  bound  to  pay  the  first  visit  to  the  ruler  of  the  Commonwealth  in 
which  he  found  himself;  while  Washington  took  the  view  that  he  was 
the  superior  officer  of  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  that,  as  the 
head  of  the  Union,  Hancock  was  bound  to  visit  him  first.  Washing- 
ton's sense  of  dignity,  and  of  what  was  due  to  his  position,  had  often 
been  exemplified  ;  and  the  governor's  vanity  and  State  Sovereignty  were 
no  match  for  it.  Hancock  prudently  made  the  gout  an  excuse  for 
giving  way  ;  and,  having  as  fine  a  sense  as  the  first  Pitt  of  the  theatrical 
properties  of  the  malady,  appeared  at  Washington's  door  swathed  in 
flannel,  and  was  borne  on  men's  shoulders  to  the  President's  apart- 
ments "  [at  the  corner  of  Court  and  Tremont  Streets] . —  Memorial 
History  of  Boston,  vol.  Hi.  p.  /pp. 

3.  "Monday,  26th. —  The  day  being  Rainy  and  Stormy,  myself 
much  disordered   by  a  cold,  and  inflammation  in  the  left  eye,  I  was 
prevented  from  visiting  Lexington,  (where  the  first  blood  in  the  dispute 
with  G.  Brit'n  was  drawn)."  —  Diary  of  George   Washington  from 
1789  to  17^1,  etc.,  edited  by  Benson  J.  Los  sing,  p.  jtf. 

4.  There   was   much   uncertainty  and   controversy  over   President 
Washington's  title.     In   many  instances   he   is   referred   to  as   "  His 
Majesty,"  but  "  His  Highness "  was  the  commonly  accepted    term, 
until  at  the  town  meeting  held  in  Boston,  to  prepare  for  his  visit  to  that 
town  in  1789,  the  three  hundred  citizens  present,  without  a  dissenting 
voice,  voted  that  he  be  called  simply  "  the  President,"  —  a  usage  which 
has  ever  since  prevailed. 

5.  "  To  BE  SOLD,  at  the  lowest  advance  for  Cash 

A  GENERAL  ASSORTMENT  OF  GOODS, 
by  WHOLESALE  AND  RETAIL,  consisting  of 
Broadcloths,  from  4^.  to  ZO.T.  per  yard, 
Coatings  and  Lambskins,  from  4^.  to  io/.  ditto, 
twilled  Lambskins,  blue  and  light  mixt  Bath 
Beavers,  forest  Cloths,  low-prized  Kerseys. 


79 

Baizes,  milled  Baizes,  black  Calimanco,  I  5  to  1  8 
inches  wide,  black  Rousellets,  Tammies,  Durants, 
Anteloons  and  Shalloons,  Wildbores,  Corderets 
and  corded  Corderets,  with  many  other  articles. 

At  SHOP,  No.  52,  CORNHILL. 
N.B.  A  variety  of  striped  COATINGS. 
Boston,  Sept.  30,  1789." 

—  Massachusetts  Centinel,  Oct.  14,  1789. 

6.  "  The  President's  dress,  on  his  arrival  in  the  town  [Boston],  was 
the  American  uniform,  with  two  rich  epaulets.  His  other  dress  is 
black  velvet."  —  Massachusetts  Centinel,  Nov.  4, 


7.  "  Francis  Brown  .  .  .  was  one  of  the  gallant  band  which  boldly 
stood  before  the  British  troops  on  the  memorable  igth  of  April,  1775. 
He  met  the  enemy  in  the  morning  ;  and  on  their  flight  from  Concord 
they  were  again  met  by  Captain  Parker's  company  in  Lincoln,  where 
Brown  received   a  very  severe  wound,  —  a    ball  entering    his   cheek, 
passed   under  his   ear   and   lodged  in  the  back  part  of  his  neck,  from 
which  it  was  extracted  the  year  following."  —  Hudson's    History  of 
Lexington  (Gen.  Reg.),  p.  29. 

"  Nathaniel  Farmer  .  .  .  received  a  severe  wound  on  the  morning 
of  that  memorable  day  (April  19,  1775).     A  ball  struck  his  right  arm, 
and  so  fractured  the    bone  that  he  was  disabled  for  a  long  time  ;  — 
pieces  of  bone  were  extracted  from  the  arm  for  several  months  after- 
wards." —  Ibid.,  p.  63. 

8.  Captain  John    Parker,  who   commanded  the  minute-men  at   the 
battle  of  Lexington,  died  Sept.  17,  1775.    His  officers,  in  1775,  were  : 
Lieutenant,  William  Tidd  ;   Ensigns,   Robert  Munroe  and  Joseph  Si- 
monds  ;  Clerk,  Daniel  Harrington  ;  Orderly  Sergeant,  William  Munroe  ; 
Sergeants,  Francis  Brown  and  Ebenezer  White  ;   Corporals,  Joel  Viles, 
Samuel  Sanderson,  John  Munroe,  and  Ebenezer  Parker. 

9.  The  newspapers   of  the   day  were  largely  filled  with   these  ad- 
dresses and  with  Washington's  replies  to  them. 


8o 

10.  ««  The  roads  in  every  part  of  this  State    [Massachusetts]    are 
amazing  crooked,  to  suit  the  convenience  of  every  man's   fields  ;  and 
the  directions  you  receive  from  the  people  equally  blind  and  ignorant ; 
for,  instead   of  going   to   Watertown  from  Lexington,  if  we  had  pro- 
ceeded to  Waltham,  we  should  in   thirteen  miles   have  saved  six." — 
Washington's  Diary,  p.  4.8. 

11.  "At  half  after  seven  I  went  to   the  assembly  [in  Portsmouth, 
N.H.]    where    there    were    about    75    well    dressed,  and    many  of 
them  very  handsome  ladies  —  among  whom  (as  was  also  the  case  at 
the   Salem   and   Boston   assemblies)    were  a  greater  proportion  with 
much  blacker  hair  than  are  usually  seen  in  the  Southern  States." — 
Washington's  Diary,  p.  45. 

i  2.  "  Anecdote. —  When  the  PRESIDENT  of  the  United  States,  in  his 
late  tour,  was  at  Lexington,  viewing  the  field  where  the  first  blood  was 
shed  in  the  late  war  —  he  with  a  degree  of  good  humor,  told  his  infor- 
mant, and  others  that  were  present,  that  the  Britons  complained  to  Dr. 
Franklin  of  the  ill  usage  their  troops  met  with  at  Lexington  battle,  by 
the  Yankies  getting  behind  stone  walls  and  firing  at  them  ;  the  doctor 
replied,  by  asking  them  whether  there  was  not  two  sides  to  the  wall" - 
Independent  Chronicle,  Nov.  27,  1789. 

13.  "  Friday,  ijth  (November}. —  .  .  .  between  two  and  three 
o'clock  arrived  at  my  house  at  New  York,  where  I  found  Mrs.  W.  and 
the  rest  of  the  family  all  well  —  and  it  being  Mrs.  Washington's  night  to 
receive  visits,  a  pretty  large  company  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  were 
present." —  Washington's  Diary,  p.  52. 

"  Friday,  25 th  (Christmas  Day). —  The  visitors  to  Mrs.  Washington 
this  afternoon  were  not  numerous,  but  respectable." —  Ibid.,  p.  64. 

"  Friday,  26th  (March,  1796). —  The  company  this  evening  was 
thin,  especially  of  Ladies." —  Ibid,,  p.  114. 


THE    EDUCATIONAL    IDEAL 

An  Outline  of  its  Growth  in  Modern  Times 

BY 

JAMES  PHINNEY   MUNROE 

FORMERLY    OF    THE    MASSACHUSETTS    INSTITUTE    OF    TECHNOLOGY 

THIS   work  presents  a  clear  and  well-proportioned  view  of  the 
historical  development  of   the  principles  which  underlie  the 
aims  and  methods  of  modern  teaching,  and  gives  in  concise  form 
the  really  important  and  permanent  steps  in  its  evolution. 

Beginning  with  the  Renaissance,  the  book  deals  with  the  successive 
leaders  of  thought  who  have  most  strongly  directed  the  educational 
aim  toward  its  highest  development.  The  chapters  are  biographi- 
cal only  as  far  as  is  necessary  to  give  to  these  leaders  a  human 
interest.  The  object  is  to  deal  with  the  broad  principles  upon 
which  the  development  of  the  educational  ideal  has  rested  rather 
than  with  specific  pedagogic  methods.  By  its  suggestions,  refer- 
ences, and  full  bibliography,  the  book  stimulates  to  the  broadest 
study,  and  furnishes  ample  material  for  an  extended  study  of  the 
whole  or  of  a  particular  part  of  the  historical  field  covered. 

CONTENrs 

Chapter    I.    INTRODUCTION. 

II.    RABELAIS.    The  Revolt  against  Medievalism. 
III.    FRANCIS  BACON.    The  Revolt  against  Classicism. 
IV.    COMENIUS.    The  Revolt  against  Feudalism. 
V.    MONTAIGNE  AND  LOCKE.    The  Child  has  Senses  to  be  trained. 
VI.    THE  JANSHNISTS  AND  FENELON.    The  Child  has  a  Heart  to  be  developed. 
VII.    ROUSSEAU.    The  Child  has  a  Soul  to  be  kept  Pure. 
VIII.    PESTALOZZI    AND    FROEBEL.     Senses,   Heart,  and  Soul  must    be    educated 

together. 
IX.    WOMEN  IN  EDUCATION.    Education  leads  to  and  from  the  Family. 

The  Home  its  Unit. 
X.    SUMMARY. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.       INDEX. 


Cloth.     262  pages.      Retail  price,  $I.OO 


B.  A.  HINSDALB.  Professor  of  the  Science  and  the  Art  of  Teaching,  University  of 
Michigan  :  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  book  will  be  received  as  a  valuable  contribution  to 
our  educational  literature. 

J.  W.  STEARNS,  Professor  of  Philosophy  and  Pedagogy,  University  of  Wisconsin: 
I  have  read  it  with  interest,  and  regard  it  as  happy  in  plan  and  inspiring:  in  matter.  I  shall 
take  pleasure  in  calling  the  attention  of  my  classes  to  the  volume. 

T.  M.  DROWN,  President  Lehigh  University:  On  every  page  the  author  shows  him- 
self the  lover  and  master  of  his  subjects. 

BOSTON  "COMMONWEALTH":  The  chapter  on  Women  in  Education  is  just,  generous, 
far-seeing,  and  eloquent.  We  assure  the  public  that  here  is  a  work  of  much  educational 
value.  

Special  circular  of  our  pedagogical  library  sent  on  application. 


D.    C.    HEATH    &    CO.,    PUBLISHERS 

BOSTON  NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 


roo 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


A    001  078  066    6 


Univers: 
South 
Libr 


